Across the United States, emergency room visits related to tick bites have reached unprecedented levels for this time of year, as reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Pennsylvania is experiencing similar trends.
Leah Lind, who coordinates Lyme and other tick-borne diseases at the Pennsylvania Department of Health, noted, “We had some warm weather pretty early on, we started seeing tick bite-related emergency department [visits] really get quite high, and yes, it’s been among the highest that we’ve ever recorded here in Pennsylvania.”
The state experiences tick activity all year, with a significant increase during the spring and early summer months. Dr. Nicole Chinnici, director of the Dr. Jane Hoffman Wildlife Genetics Institute at East Stroudsburg University, stated, “The next couple weeks are about the peak, that’ll be the greatest number of exposures that will happen, and then once the weather breaks for the hot summer, you’ll start to see those trends start to come down.”
Tick-borne Illnesses
According to the Pennsylvania Department of Health, Lyme disease, primarily spread by deer ticks, is the most frequently reported tickborne illness in the state. East Stroudsburg University’s tick lab tests for Lyme disease, anaplasmosis, babesiosis, hard tick relapsing fever, and Powassan virus, according to Chinnici.
Submitted by East Stroudsburg University
Additionally, the Department of Health is monitoring cases of alpha-gal syndrome, an allergy to animal products potentially triggered by lone star tick bites. “Alpha-gal is a molecule that is in most mammalian meat products. It is not in humans, and it is also carried in this tick saliva. So, if the tick bites a person, that person can become sensitized to that molecule, and they can, in some rare cases, go on to develop this meat allergy,” Lind explained.
Submitted by Pennsylvania Department of Health
Alpha-gal syndrome, akin to other allergies such as peanut allergies, does not automatically follow a lone star tick bite. Chinnici elaborated, “It’s like any other allergy, like a peanut allergy, you can or may not get the allergy, so it could be exposure after a single bite, it could be exposure after several bites, but it’s an a person’s immune response to the saliva of the tick that then mimics the structure of what you see in red meats, so in future consumption of red meats, your body may associate those as being exposed to a tick and start to give you an immune-like reaction.”
This year, fewer than 50 cases have been identified in Pennsylvania, with approximately 200 cases reported between 2017 and 2022, based on voluntary information, as it is not a “mandatory reportable condition,” Lind explained. Pets, however, are not at risk. “Our companion animals already carry this molecule, so this is not something that they would develop a sensitivity to,” she said.
East Stroudsburg’s tick lab does not conduct alpha-gal testing. “We don’t test for alpha-gal because that’s just individual based, and every tick carries it in their saliva, so that’s important to note. We do get a lot of calls on that if we test for that, but we don’t, because that is again an allergy and it’s person-dependent,” Chinnici said.
How to Protect Yourself from Ticks
Dr. Chinnici emphasizes the importance of consistent tick prevention practices. “We live in a very dense area of ticks, we have a lot of Lyme disease and other tickborne pathogens, so we just want to make sure that we are removing ticks and not allowing ticks to attach to us or our pets,” she said.
TICK PREVENTION
The Pennsylvania Department of Health makes the following recommendations:
● Use an EPA-registered insect repellent
● Permethrin, a chemical insect repellent, is recommended for use on socks, shoes, clothing, tents, sleeping bags and anything that is cloth.
● Perform a thorough tick check — around the hairline, behind ears, belly button, behind knees and other hard to get to parts of the body — after being outdoors.
Chinnici identifies a common location of exposure as “our own backyard when we’re doing yardwork.” Lind adds, “Yard work is a risky activity, so we absolutely recommend using all tick prevention strategies when doing yard work. If you’re playing outside, if you’re outside with your pet, do tick checks on your pet as well. Talk to your veterinarian about how you can prevent tick bites for your pet.”
Quick removal of ticks from the body or pets is crucial. “Sometimes we hear that people want to go to their doctor, or they want to go to urgent care, or something like that, and that’s understandable, but the longer that the tick is attached, the more chance there is for disease transmission,” Lind said. Testing for tickborne diseases is available after removal.
Chinnici advises, “You want to stick with the fine point tweezer, remove it from the base of the mouth part straight up and out. Seal that tick in a clean ziploc bag. Visit our website, ticklab.org. Pennsylvania residents get free tick testing.”
Stay vigilant for symptoms of tickborne illnesses, which Lind describes as including “fever, chills, rashes, things like that, especially in the summer months when we see most of our cases, not to hesitate to contact their healthcare provider.”
