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State experts warn that there are currently an unusually high number of tick-carrying ticks in Connecticut and that a very high percentage is capable of transmitting Lyme disease, which is increasing the risks of contracting the disease.
"We are seeing high levels of ticks infected with human pathogens," said Theodore G. Andreadis, director of the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, on Monday.
The director of the CAES tick test program, Goudarz Molaei, said that more than 40% of the more than 2,600 ticks checked so far this season carry the spirochetes of Lyme disease. "It's about 10 percent more than we have generally seen in the last five years," said Molaei.
The screening program also finds a large number of ticks that are also carriers of other dangerous diseases that include babesiosis and granulocytic anaplasmosis, authorities said.
"We are in full swing for the nymphal stages of blacklegged ticks … which are often difficult to detect because of their small size and their propensity to set and feed quickly," said Andreadis. "We are up to the season."
Andreadis urges Connecticut residents to exercise extreme caution in monitoring themselves and their children as they go out into the woods or just around their backyard.
"Ticks are pretty much everywhere," warned Andreadis. "There is virtually no wooded area in the state where you can venture out and that does not have those ticks." He said that anyone walking in wooded or brushy areas should use repellents against ticks and / or wearing anti-tick clothing.
According to the state's Department of Public Health, 2,022 cases of Lyme disease have been reported in Connecticut in 2017. But experts believe that the disease is now so common that many doctors and health facilities are not taking it all just not worth reporting all cases of Lyme disease. According to some estimates, more than 20,000 people in this state were infected with the disease last year.
"In Connecticut, June and July are the peak months for Lyme disease," said Christopher Stan, a spokesman for the state department of public health. "Due to reporting delays, our Lyme Disease Surveillance System does not provide real-time information on the occurrence of Lyme disease."
According to the Centers for Disease Control, Lyme disease is currently the most commonly reported "vector-borne disease" in the United States. A vector-borne disease is one that is transmitted to humans by ticks, mosquitoes, or other insects or animals.
CDC scientists believe that nearly 300,000 people a year are now infected with Lyme disease each year. "This is part of a national trend that we see here," said Andreadis about the growing number of tick-borne diseases in Connecticut.
Federal experts have also warned that the number of people infected with ticks, mosquitoes and fleas in this country has more than tripled in recent years. Some scientists suggest that this increase could be due to an increasingly hot weather across the United States linked to climate change.
Andreadis said that the rate of infection with Lyme disease in deer ticks in Connecticut between 2013 and 2017 ranged from a low of 27 percent to 32 percent. He said that 40 percent infection rate this season "is about the highest we've seen."
The Connecticut tick experts are also concerned that other tick-borne diseases may not be tested under the tick program that exists in this country.
Andreadis said that a tick-borne disease, of particular concern, is the Powassan virus, which is also transmitted by deer ticks. Two men died in Cape Cod in 2017 from the disease. The first case of Powassan Connecticut was also recorded last year, but the baby of a Griswold family survived.
The Connecticut authorities have requested a grant from the CDC to expand the testing program of this state to include the Powassan virus and other tick-borne diseases. "It's a pretty nasty disease," said Andreadis.
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