An mRNA vaccine against tick bites

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen O’Leary
Keyword(s):  
2020 ◽  
Vol 57 (5) ◽  
pp. 1532-1538
Author(s):  
Cedar Mitchell ◽  
Megan Dyer ◽  
Feng-Chang Lin ◽  
Natalie Bowman ◽  
Thomas Mather ◽  
...  

Abstract Tick-borne diseases are a growing threat to public health in the United States, especially among outdoor workers who experience high occupational exposure to ticks. Long-lasting permethrin-impregnated clothing has demonstrated high initial protection against bites from blacklegged ticks, Ixodes scapularis Say (Acari: Ixodidae), in laboratory settings, and sustained protection against bites from the lone star tick, Amblyomma americanum (L.) (Acari: Ixodidae), in field tests. However, long-lasting permethrin impregnation of clothing has not been field tested among outdoor workers who are frequently exposed to blacklegged ticks. We conducted a 2-yr randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blinded trial among 82 outdoor workers in Rhode Island and southern Massachusetts. Participants in the treatment arm wore factory-impregnated permethrin clothing, and the control group wore sham-treated clothing. Outdoor working hours, tick encounters, and bites were recorded weekly to assess protective effectiveness of long-lasting permethrin-impregnated garments. Factory-impregnated clothing significantly reduced tick bites by 65% in the first study year and by 50% in the second year for a 2-yr protective effect of 58%. No significant difference in other tick bite prevention method utilization occurred between treatment and control groups, and no treatment-related adverse outcomes were reported. Factory permethrin impregnation of clothing is safe and effective for the prevention of tick bites among outdoor workers whose primary exposure is to blacklegged ticks in the northeastern United States.


1966 ◽  
Vol 2 (13) ◽  
pp. 600-601 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. F. Banfield
Keyword(s):  

Author(s):  
T E Zembsch ◽  
X Lee ◽  
G M Bron ◽  
L C Bartholomay ◽  
S M Paskewitz

Abstract Borrelia burgdorferi, the spirochete that causes Lyme disease, is endemic and widespread in Wisconsin. Research in the northeastern United States has revealed a positive association between Babesia microti, the main pathogen that causes babesiosis in humans, and Bo. burgdorferi in humans and in ticks. This study was conducted to examine associations between the disease agents in the Upper midwestern United States. Ixodes scapularis Say nymphs (N = 2,858) collected between 2015 and 2017 from nine locations in Wisconsin were tested for Babesia spp. and Borrelia spp. using real-time PCR. Two species of Babesia were detected; Ba. microti and Babesia odocoilei (a parasite of members of the family Cervidae). Prevalence of infection at the nine locations ranged from 0 to 13% for Ba. microti, 11 to 31% for Bo. burgdorferi sensu stricto, and 5.7 to 26% for Ba. odocoilei. Coinfection of nymphs with Bo. burgdorferi and Ba. odocoilei was detected in eight of the nine locations and significant positive associations were observed in two of the eight locations. The prevalence of nymphal coinfection with both and Bo. burgdorferi and Ba. microti ranged from 0.81 to 6.5%. These two pathogens were significantly positively associated in one of the five locations where both pathogens were detected. In the other four locations, the observed prevalence of coinfection was higher than expected in all but one site-year. Clinics and healthcare providers should be aware of the association between Ba. microti and Bo. burgdorferi pathogens when treating patients who report tick bites.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 101647
Author(s):  
Oghenekaro Omodior ◽  
Kristina R. Anderson ◽  
William Clark ◽  
Paul Eze ◽  
Holly Donohoe

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cora Scheerer ◽  
Melvin Rüth ◽  
Linda Tizek ◽  
Martin Köberle ◽  
Tilo Biedermann ◽  
...  

BACKGROUND Borreliosis is the most frequently transmitted tick-borne disease in Europe. It is difficult to estimate the incidence of tick bites and associated diseases in the German population due to the lack of an obligation to register across all 16 federal states of Germany. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study is to show that Google data can be used to generate general trends of infectious diseases on the basis of borreliosis and tick bites. In addition, the possibility of using Google AdWord data to estimate incidences of infectious diseases, where there is inconsistency in the obligation to notify authorities, is investigated with the perspective to facilitate public health studies. METHODS Google AdWords Keyword Planner was used to identify search terms related to ticks and borreliosis in Germany from January 2015 to December 2018. The search volume data from the identified search terms was assessed using Excel version 15.23. In addition, SPSS version 24.0 was used to calculate the correlation between search volumes, registered cases, and temperature. RESULTS A total of 1999 tick-related and 542 borreliosis-related search terms were identified, with a total of 209,679,640 Google searches in all 16 German federal states in the period under review. The analysis showed a high correlation between temperature and borreliosis (<i>r</i>=0.88), and temperature and tick bite (<i>r</i>=0.83), and a very high correlation between borreliosis and tick bite (<i>r</i>=0.94). Furthermore, a high to very high correlation between Google searches and registered cases in each federal state was observed (Brandenburg <i>r</i>=0.80, Mecklenburg-West Pomerania <i>r</i>= 0.77, Saxony <i>r</i>= 0.74, and Saxony-Anhalt <i>r</i>=0.90; all <i>P</i>&lt;.001). CONCLUSIONS Our study provides insight into annual trends concerning interest in ticks and borreliosis that are relevant to the German population exemplary in the data of a large internet search engine. Public health studies collecting incidence data may benefit from the results indicating a significant correlation between internet search data and incidences of infectious diseases.


2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 18-21
Author(s):  
Wahid Lana ◽  
◽  
Aziz Sameh ◽  
Abraham Christina ◽  
◽  
...  

Anaphylaxis is a serious life-threatening allergic reaction that typically has an immediate onset. It can present as flushing, angioedema, shortness of breath, rash and result in death if not treated immediately. In the past ten years, an emerging cause of delayed anaphylaxis has been identified. An IgE antibody to a mammalian oligosaccharide epitope (alpha-gal, or galactose-alpha-1,3-galactose) has been linked to both immediate and delayed onset anaphylaxis. The immediate form is associated with the first exposure to cetuximab; whereas the delayed onset occurs after ingestion of mammalian meat such as beef and pork. The presentation can develop 2-6 hours after ingestion. This IgE antibody to alpha-gal is strongly suggested that Lone Star tick bites have been the culprit. It is imperative when caring for an anaphylaxis patient of unknown etiology, to consider a line of questioning to not only include recent tick bites, but also last 2-3 meals ingested to identify if mammalian meat may have been the trigger.


2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (15) ◽  
pp. 45-48
Author(s):  
S. V. Shirokostup ◽  
I. P. Saldan

The article presents an assessment of the effectiveness of the effect of specific prevention measures on the incidence of tick-borne viral encephalitis in the population of the regions of the Siberian Federal District. The data on the incidence of Rospotrebnadzor of the Russian Federation and the regions of the Siberian Federal District for 2000–2017 years were used, the reporting of regional health services, the conditions and cause-effect relationships of the incidence of tick-borne encephalitis were assessed in the analysis of epidemiological survey maps of outbreaks. The study found that the analysis of the potential risk of contact with the foci of this infection in the regions of the Siberian Federal District, based on the ranking of regions by the level of population’s appeal for tick bites, can be considered as a prognostic criterion in planning the volume of preventive measures. Vaccination, having a significant impact on reducing morbidity (r = –0.89; p < 0.001) and mortality (r = –0.86; p < 0.001) from this infection, together with seroprophylaxis, can be one of the leading factors in epidemiological forecasting the incidence of tick-borne viral encephalitis in endemic areas.


1933 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 263-269 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Aneurin Lewis

The study of Dipterous insects in Kenya Colony has been restricted, to a large extent, to the Culicidae and their relation to malaria, and to the Tabanidae and the genus Glossina in connection with trypanosomiasis, the non-bloodsucking Diptera having received but little consideration.“ Blowflies ” or “ maggot-flies ” are by no means uncommon in the Colony, and evidences of myiasis in its various forms are numerous. Symes & Roberts (1932) cite instances of the larvae of Sarcophaga haemorrhoidalis and of Lucilia sericata in the exposed brain substance of a woman ; and of Chrysomyia bezziana in an ulcer on the foot. Cordylobia anthropophaga, parasitic in the skin of man and other animals, is common, and Auchmeromyia luteola (in reality a blood-sucker in its larval stage) is distributed from the coast to the southern boundary of Abyssinia. The “ sheep nasal fly ” is extremely abundant, and many other larvae of Oestrus species have been recorded from game in the Colony.Wounds, ulcers and sores in natives and in animals are often infested with maggots. I have seen, on several occasions, maggots in the ears, and in sores under the eyes, of native children, and in leg-wounds of native labourers. Still more frequently have I observed maggots in wounds of animals ; they occur at the bases of distorted, and in the scars of broken, horns, in the lesions caused by tick-bites, in injured eyes, and in the soiled fleece of sheep. Animals on the point of death are often attended by myriads of sarcophagous flies, the vast numbers of Chrysomyia marginalis in particular presenting an extraordinary sight.


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