Powassan virus: 2 cases of rare disease transmitted by confirmed ticks in New Jersey

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The Powassan virus, which can cause a life-threatening infection, is transmitted by three types of infected ticks, including the deer tick that transmits Lyme disease. The Powassan virus can not be transmitted from one person to the other.

"The division has no confirmation that the Powassan virus was the cause of the death of a resident of Sussex County," said James R. McDonald III, Division Director and Head of Department Health. County Health and Social Services.

Fever, headache, swelling of the brain (encephalitis), swelling of the membranes surrounding the brain and spinal cord (meningitis), vomiting, weakness, confusion, loss of coordination, speech disorders and memory loss. However, many infected people never develop symptoms.

According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 114 cases of Powassan were reported in the United States between 2008 and 2017. At that time, only seven cases were reported in New Jersey. Cases confirmed during the same period have also been reported in Connecticut (1), Maine (6), Massachusetts (16), Minnesota (32), New Hampshire (3), New York (16) , North Carolina (1) and North Dakota. (1), Pennsylvania (5), Rhode Island (3), Virginia (1) and Wisconsin (22).

Most cases in the United States occur in late spring, early summer, and in the middle of fall, when ticks are most active. The warmer winters have resulted in an increase in the tick population, so experts predict an increase in tick-borne infections of many types.

No treatment for the Powassan virus

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There are no vaccines to prevent or drugs to treat the infection in Powassan. McDonald pointed out that the tick must be tied, not just crawling on your skin, for the disease to be transmitted.

Everyone is at risk for Powassan. Anyone bitten by an infected tick can be infected, said Dr. Jennifer Lyons, head of the Division of Neurological Infections and Inflammatory Diseases at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.

"About 15% of infected patients who have symptoms do not survive," said Lyons, also an assistant professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School. "Of the survivors, at least 50% will have long-term neurological damage that will not be resolved."

Although most people who are infected never show symptoms, those who become ill usually do so for a few days to about a week after the tick bite, she explained. Symptoms can manifest up to a month after transmission of the virus by a tick bite. Fever and headaches are the most common symptoms. "You're basically feeling nonspecific things like flu," Lyons said, "including muscle pain, maybe you have a small rash on your skin, but you'll almost certainly have fever and headache."

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The unlucky ones who develop a more serious illness will do so "very quickly over the next two days," she said. "You are starting to have difficulty maintaining your awareness and your cognition … You may develop seizures You may develop an inability to breathe on your own."

According to the CDC, people with Powassan virus disease often have to be hospitalized to receive respiratory assistance and swelling in and around the brain.

If someone has other health problems, they are more likely to develop complications from the Powassan virus, said the Sussex County Health Department: "It is important to see a doctor if symptoms occur. "

Prevent tick-borne diseases

To prevent Powassan or any other virus transmitted by ticks, you should avoid tick bites. To do this, avoid heavily brushed areas when you are in the woods, wear long-sleeved clothing and pants where possible, use an insect repellent, and perform a tick control test after being in contact. 39; outside. Insect repellents containing DEET, picaridine or IR3535 are recommended by the Environmental Protection Agency.

"Inspect yourself outside and take a shower as soon as you get back to find and eliminate the ticks," McDonald said.

It is also important to prevent ticks on your pets, mainly by using preventative products, and in your yard, by mowing the lawn and ridding old furniture, mattresses or trash.

The Powassan virus was discovered for the first time in Ontario in 1958. "A child has contracted unspecified encephalitis" or brain inflammation, Lyons said. When the previously invisible virus was identified, scientists named it Powassan, named after the city where the child lived. Only a few cases were observed each year between the 1950s and the early 2000s, when the number of cases reported in Canada and the United States began to increase.

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