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A virus causing a rare form of recurrent fever has been identified for the first time in a tick taken in Ireland.
The virus, a strain of Borrelia bacteria, has been identified in a tick collected in Portumna, County Galway.
The pathogen Borrelia miyamotoi, first identified in Japanese ticks in 1995, is distantly related to the bacterium that causes Lyme disease.
The initial symptom of the disease is usually a red rash, but if it is not treated, other symptoms may follow, including fever, muscle aches, swelling of the joints and temporary paralysis of the joints. facial muscles.
The discovery is reported in a study published in the scientific journal Plos One by a team of Irish scientists, including researchers from University College Dublin and University College Cork.
They claim that their research shows that ticks in Ireland are infected with a variety of Borrelia bacteria that carry diseases. The results also show that ticks infected with Borrelia exist in the south-east, an area hitherto considered significantly infested by ticks and therefore not considered a risk area for humans due to the disease. of Lyme.
Infected ticks
Five percent of the ticks collected in the study carried infectious Borrelia bacteria, ranging from 2% in Killarney, County Kerry to 12% in Portumna. All sampling sites, including Glenveagh, County Donegal, Glendalough, County Wicklow and Clifden, County Galway, collected ticks infected with a form of Borrelia.
The HSE estimates that there are about 100 to 200 cases of Lyme disease a year, but some patient groups and some doctors say it is too weak. The new study suggests that some ticks may carry another disease with symptoms similar to those of Lyme disease.
"It is likely that ticks have a recurrent fever, Borrelia, that they bite the man and that we may be patients" missing "because no one is aware of the fever recurrent in Ireland, and the current test does not detect a person with recurrent febrile borreliosis, "said Professor Jack Lambert, one of the authors of the study.
High fever
The recurrent fever transmitted by ticks is characterized by a high fever that lasts a few days, disappears for a week, then returns. Although rare, the disease is present in the states of the western United States and in parts of Spain.
The disease normally goes away on its own, but severe cases are treated with antibiotics.
Health authorities have indicated that the best way to prevent tick-bite infection is to take precautions outdoors, such as wearing long pants and tucking one's legs into socks, and using anti-ticks.
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