However, proof of stable infestations at most of these locations remains to be published.
The distribution and abundance of these ticks in the United States have recently expanded specimens have been collected from the upper Midwest and New England ( 2, 3). Their bites also may induce erythema migrans, for which the etiology remains elusive ( 1) and which seems to be the cause of red meat (alpha-gal ) allergy. This investigation was a collaboration between the INHS Medical Entomology Laboratory, the Illinois Department of Public Health, the CDC, conservation officials and Illinois residents.Lone star ticks ( Amblyomma americanum) transmit diverse agents of zoonoses, including human monocytic ehrlichiosis, canine granulocytic ehrlichiosis, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, and tularemia. I just want them to be aware, so they can take concrete steps to reduce tick encounters and bites." "I don't want people to avoid the woods and parks. "We want to alert physicians and public health officials throughout Illinois that there is a fairly new pathogen out there that is a danger to public health," she said. The detection of Heartland virus in adult Lone Star ticks a year after human infection suggests that the infected ticks may have overwintered in the area, Tuten said. But finding so many Lone Star ticks in Kankakee County, including some with the virus, really surprised us." "Infected Lone Star ticks had been found as far north as Missouri, so we expected to find the infections in ticks from Williamson County in the southern part of Illinois. "A single batch of male Lone Star ticks from each county was found to be positive for the Heartland virus," Tuten said. They shipped their tick samples to the CDC Arboviral Diseases Branch in Fort Collins, Colorado, where the ticks were combined in batches of 10-30 for testing.
The researchers collected ticks in all three locales. The patient in Williamson County may have been exposed in a heavily wooded wildlife refuge or outside a suburban home with a few trees. The site in Kankakee County was a rural homestead with barnyard animals and a small amount of forest surrounded by cropland, Tuten said. "I've seen Lone Star ticks run across a forest floor to me." "Lone Star ticks are very aggressive ambush predators and many people don't realize this," Tuten said. Previous research showed that the Lone Star tick, Amblyomma americanum, can carry and transmit the Heartland virus, so the researchers focused their efforts on collecting this species. This information allowed Tuten and her team to determine whether ticks in those areas carried the virus. To determine the source of the viral infections, health department officials in each county interviewed the patients to learn where they were when they were bit.
Most people infected with the virus end up hospitalized and a few have died. "And with COVID-19 on the collective mind, a tick-borne viral infection could be overlooked, especially in cases where a tick bite was missed."Īccording to the CDC, there are no vaccines to prevent infection with the Heartland virus or medications to treat it. "Heartland virus won't show up on a standard diagnostic panel for tick-borne bacterial diseases," she said. INHS is a division of the Prairie Research Institute at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Tick-borne illnesses share symptoms with many other diseases and misdiagnoses sometimes occur, said Holly Tuten, a vector ecologist with the Illinois Natural History Survey who led the new research. The Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention confirmed that clinical samples from both patients tested positive for Heartland virus, which is spread by ticks. This patient also noticed tick bites after camping. Two months later and more than 250 miles to the south, a resident of Williamson County was hospitalized with many of the same symptoms: fever, diarrhea, headache, fatigue, decreased appetite and nausea. In July 2018, a resident of Kankakee County was hospitalized after suffering several tick bites while camping on private property. The findings are reported in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases.
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