Do many ticks mean a lot of Lyme? Maybe not

There is no doubt that this season has been difficult for ticks, insidious arachnids that cause Lyme disease and other diseases.

So far this year, the state has collected about 3,800 harmful insects, at least 800 more than what it collects in general over a 12-month period.

However, a national agricultural expert said that there were fewer ticks this year than last year. And some medical experts have said, at least preliminary, that there seems to be fewer cases of tick – borne diseases than last year.

"It is obviously difficult to say without clear statistics, but compared to last year, we saw fewer people with diseases caused by ticks," said Dr. Goran Miljkovic, infectious disease doctor at Bridgeport Hospital.

He stated that not only did they see fewer cases of Lyme disease, but also fewer cases of babesiosis and anaplasmosis – diseases also caused by tick bites.

The situation is somewhat different at Stamford Hospital, where the director of infectious diseases, Dr. Michael Parry, stated that there were "many" more cases of babesiosis than this time last year . However, this does not seem to be the case for other tick-borne diseases in particular.

"I do not know we have seen more Lyme," he said.

Lyme disease is caused by a spiral bacterium called Borrelia burgdorferi and spreads to humans through the bite of blacklegged ticks. It is named Lyme, Conn., Where it was reported in a group of children and adults in 1975. Symptoms may include fever, headache, fatigue, and a characteristic rash. If it is not treated, the disease can have serious consequences.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there are about 30,000 cases of Lyme disease reported each year, but many cases are unreported.

State Department of Public Health spokeswoman Maura Downes said that despite early reports from doctors, it is too early to tell if it will be a mild or difficult year for human Lyme cases.

"It's too early to tell us if the numbers are higher or lower than last year," said Downes in an email. "We will receive reports on Lyme disease cases throughout the fall and the 2018 statistics will not be finalized until April 2019."

This year has been quite robust for ticks, said Goudarz Molaei, who runs the tick testing program at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station. In general, he said, an average of 3,000 ticks are collected over a full year and the fact that 3,800 ticks have already been collected during an active season.

Molaei said the state was still not on track to have a year of ticks as bad as in 2017, with 4,600 creatures. However, it is clear that ticks are more prevalent than in the past.

There was a time, said Molaei, when the tick season ran from the end of March to the end of July. There would be a break of a few months, then ticks would retire from late October to late November.

Now, he said, "we continue to receive ticks throughout the year."

With the arrival of fall, there is still a chance for tick reports to develop, said Dr. Theodore Andreadis, director of Connecticut's agricultural experiment stations.

"The number of tick submissions is low at this time because the tick's" larval "stage is active at this time of the year and does not feed easily on humans," Andreadis said in an email. "The activity of adult ticks will resume in October."

Another alarming point is that this year's ticks are more likely to be infected with Lyme disease – and therefore more likely to spread it than in the past.

In the last ten years, Molaei said the tick contamination rate was about 32 to 33%. This year and last year, the average is close to 38%.

But Molaei could not speculate on the impact, if any, of the number of ticks on human cases – both because it is not the kind of information he is following and because he is still too early to say.

"According to our experience, the number of cases of Lyme disease is not available at this time of year," he said.