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WASHINGTON (FOX 5 DC) – Have you heard of the Powassan virus? He is now appearing in our region. You can contract it from a tick bite and this can be deadly.
The rare virus can infect a person in the first 15 minutes of a tick bite and up to 12 hours later.
Powassan is much more dangerous than Lyme disease, causing swelling of the brain.
This has proved fatal for a New Jersey man, and we now know that Northern Virginia is taking care of his first patient of the year.
There have been about 75 cases in the United States in the last decade, mainly in the Great Lakes region and in the northeast.
"What's changing is the presence of the virus in the rodent and mammal population, so ticks are now exposed to it," said Floyd Shockley of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. "To my knowledge, nobody has proven why, as usual, climate change is possible, but I can not say how much."
Shockley is surprised that he has not yet registered a case in Maryland or West Virginia.
Powassan symptoms include fever, headache, vomiting, weakness, confusion, convulsions, and memory loss.
Experts recommend using an anti-tick, wearing long-sleeved clothes and pants, avoiding wooded and brushed areas and regularly checking ticks after a day outdoors.
It is important to note that Powassan's disease is not transmitted from person to person.
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