Tick season showed up early this year, and it showed up busy. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued an alert last month warning that emergency room visits for tick bites hit their highest weekly rates since 2017 across most of the country, New York included, according to Noticia, which spoke with Long Island doctors watching the spike up close.
On Long Island, the bites are already piling up. “We are already seeing tick activity in Suffolk County and across New York State,” Dr. Andrew Handel, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Stony Brook Children’s Hospital, told Noticia. “The timing seems to be a little earlier than in previous years.” (His comments, and the others below, were translated from the Spanish-language original.)
Warmer winters are to blame, the doctors say. Milder cold seasons let ticks expand where they live and stay active longer. The lone star tick, a pest long common in the South, is gaining ground in Long Island’s counties, particularly out on the East End.
“In recent years, there has definitely been a shift in tick bite patterns,” said Dr. Conan Tu, an internist at Optum Medical Care of New York & New Jersey, based in Bethpage. “We’ve seen a general increase in bites and also a change in the ticks that affect us.”
Long Island has been a Lyme disease hot spot for a long time. The CDC estimates Lyme affects roughly 476,000 Americans a year. But other tick-borne illnesses are becoming more common in the area too. The blacklegged tick, also called the deer tick, can carry Lyme along with babesiosis, a malaria-like infection that can turn serious in older adults or people with weakened immune systems. Babesiosis is rare, but Suffolk County is considered one of the country’s epicenters for it.
The lone star tick, identifiable by a white spot on its back, brings a different problem. It can trigger alpha-gal syndrome, an allergy to red meat that can be life-threatening. Doctors say the allergy develops after exposure to chemicals in the tick’s saliva. Tu noted that the death of a man in New Jersey last year was attributed to the syndrome after a tick bite.
Most tick bites cause no medical problems, especially if you pull the tick off fast. “To contract Lyme disease, the tick generally must remain attached for at least 24 to 36 hours,” Handel said. Babesiosis usually needs even longer, often about three days. “The risk of infection or reaction is very low if the tick is removed within 24 hours,” Tu said.
If you find one attached, grab it with fine-tipped tweezers by the head, as close to the skin as possible, and pull straight out. Handel recommends saving the tick in a sealed bag so a health provider can help figure out next steps. If the tick was attached more than 24 hours, looks swollen with blood, or you start feeling symptoms, get medical attention as soon as possible.
In some cases, a single dose of doxycycline given shortly after a blacklegged tick bite can cut the risk of developing Lyme by about 90 percent, according to Handel. If an infection does set in, both Lyme and babesiosis can be treated with a course of antibiotics.
Watch for a sudden fever with other symptoms, especially between spring and fall. “The sudden onset of fever accompanied by other symptoms should make you suspect a tick-borne illness,” Handel said. Chills, headache, fatigue, muscle and joint aches, neck pain and swollen lymph nodes are all worth flagging. Lyme is often, though not always, tied to a bullseye rash: a central circle ringed by another. Blood tests may not come back positive until weeks after infection, so doctors often start treatment based on symptoms and exposure history alone.
Ticks thrive in tall grass, brush, leaf litter and wooded areas, so hikers should stick to the center of trails. Wear long sleeves and long pants, tuck the cuffs into your socks, and pick light-colored clothing so ticks are easier to spot. Apply DEET repellent on exposed skin and spray permethrin, which kills ticks on contact, on clothing and shoes, where it stays put through several washes. Then check your whole body, including behind the ears, the scalp, the waistline, the groin and skin folds.
And if a dog came along, check the dog. “If you go hiking with your dog, check it too,” Tu said, “not just to protect your pet, but to keep ticks from passing on to you.”
Featured image: Bushwick Daily archive
