Author Topic: Being Outdoors Can Be Dangerous  (Read 7183 times)

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JimB

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Being Outdoors Can Be Dangerous
« on: September 11, 2012, 10:09:17 AM »
I have yet to let the thought of bears, wolves, or any other creature bother me enough to keep me from making multi-day trips in the great outdoors but it appears that tick bite prevention may fast become something that one should take into careful consideration when spending lots of hours outside.

Months later — after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had sent a pair of investigators, after involving epidemiologists from the US military who had been studying illness in the residents of bases nationwide, after trapping mice and grinding up hundreds of ticks — the group realized they had found a new tick-borne illness. It was an Erlichia – though it is so new that it does not yet have a name — but it was carried by a tick species that had never been associated with that organism before. Forty-two people have been sickened by it so far. “This is not a benign disease,” Pritt warned. Souce Emphasis is mine.
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Richard Myers

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Re: Being Outdoors Can Be Dangerous
« Reply #1 on: September 11, 2012, 02:43:48 PM »
The "bugs" of late summer are biting. The nation is having its worst West Nile virus season in a decade, and up to 10,000 people who stayed in California cabins are at risk of hantavirus. A second case of bubonic plague in the West has been confirmed , in a girl in Colorado , and scientists fear that a bumper crop of ticks could spread Lyme disease, the nation's most common bug-borne malady.

Yet the risk of getting these scary-sounding diseases is small. With the right precautions, you can still enjoy spending time outdoors. And that helps fight much more common threats to your health , obesity and too little exercise.
  source

I think I heard that some infectious diseases are spreading to more animals than usual. Here is something on ticks:  "a new viral disease thought to be transmitted by ticks. The virus  is related to hantaviruses, which have recently caused at least two deaths at Yosemite National Park, but so far only two confirmed cases have been observed." source

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JimB

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Re: Being Outdoors Can Be Dangerous
« Reply #2 on: May 22, 2013, 03:08:43 PM »
Under the microscope, Sam Telford surveyed the tiny, spiral bacteria floating in spinal fluid taken from an 80-year-old woman. They looked very similar to the spirochete bacteria that can cause Lyme disease. But in fact, he had discovered yet another public health threat—a brand new disease that people can get from the same ticks that transmit the Lyme bacteria. Source
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JimB

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Re: Being Outdoors Can Be Dangerous
« Reply #3 on: August 18, 2013, 05:45:14 PM »
After recently experiencing some very strange symptoms just a few weeks ago I was worried that I had contracted lyme disease as I had recently pulled off numerous ticks after hiking. Thank the Lord the tests came back negative and the symptoms have since gone away. However, that is not the case for everyone. The article I link to below is kind of long but worth the reading to understand how mysterious and debilitating this disease can be. I know someone personally who has spent a thousands to find a solution as has this lady was willing to do to just "feel well" in this article.

Some Lyme disease patients have symptoms that can linger for years despite standard treatment. Scientists are puzzling over how that can be Source
By communion with God in nature, the mind is uplifted, and the heart finds rest.  {DA 291.1}

Wally

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Re: Being Outdoors Can Be Dangerous
« Reply #4 on: August 19, 2013, 02:54:17 AM »
It's a bad one, and it is hard to diagnose.  It also affects each person differently.  One of our pastors, and his wife, both got a very bad case of it.  It took a long time for them to recover, and I'm not sure that even now they are 100% normal.  A number of our customers have had it.   I keep telling people (only half joking) that everyone is going to get it eventually.  It just keeps spreading.  But I've also heard that some folks may be resistant to it.  I'm not sure if that's true or not, but since it's true for some other diseases, maybe it's that way with Lyme.

This year has been the worst I've seen for ticks in our area.  They're not too evident now, but in spring and early summer they were everywhere.
So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants:  we have done that which was our duty to do.  Luke 17:10

JimB

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Re: Being Outdoors Can Be Dangerous
« Reply #5 on: August 19, 2013, 04:15:22 AM »
This year has been the worst I've seen for ticks in our area.  They're not too evident now, but in spring and early summer they were everywhere.

It was the same here. Just a few weeks ago I was traveling and stopped to see something and walked just a few feet into the woods and when I came out I had about 5 or 6 ticks crawling on my jeans. At the time I was kind of thinking about doing a camping trip and that settled it for me. Earlier this summer they were indeed everywhere. When I was young we never worried about ticks it was something that was in the south.
By communion with God in nature, the mind is uplifted, and the heart finds rest.  {DA 291.1}

Wally

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Re: Being Outdoors Can Be Dangerous
« Reply #6 on: August 19, 2013, 04:55:34 PM »
When we moved here in the mid-80's we never saw any ticks, except in the southern most part of the State.  That began to change 10 years ago, or so.  Now they're everywhere.
So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants:  we have done that which was our duty to do.  Luke 17:10

Mimi

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Re: Being Outdoors Can Be Dangerous
« Reply #7 on: August 19, 2013, 05:08:11 PM »
On the major news networks, they are thoroughly covering the spread of these dangerous little pests. I think we can refer to them as a pestilence? They are quickly growing in number.
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JimB

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Re: Being Outdoors Can Be Dangerous
« Reply #8 on: August 20, 2013, 03:30:04 PM »
I think we can refer to them as a pestilence? They are quickly growing in number.

I would agree whole heartedly. They may be little but their work is horrific. "They" are not only worried about ticks in North America but they are also worried about African tick-born diseases invading southern Europe.

Each year, more than 30,000 cases of Lyme disease are reported to CDC, making it the most commonly reported tick-borne illness in the United States. The new estimate suggests that the total number of people diagnosed with Lyme disease is roughly 10 times higher than the yearly reported number. This new estimate supports studies published in the 1990s indicating that the true number of cases is between 3- and 12-fold higher than the number of reported cases. Source
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JimB

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Re: Being Outdoors Can Be Dangerous
« Reply #9 on: February 21, 2015, 05:19:25 PM »
U.S health officials are investigating a new strain of virus linked to the death of a Kansas man, who fell ill after being bitten by a tick, then went into organ failure and died about two weeks later.  Souce
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JimB

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Re: Being Outdoors Can Be Dangerous
« Reply #10 on: July 20, 2015, 06:42:25 PM »
Thinking about a hiking trip later this summer and these types of news stories always weigh on a person who likes the outdoors. I think I'd rather run into a wolf or bear. Connecticut is already at high risk for Lyme's disease and now they have a new fatal tick disease.

Andreadis said the virus, which was recently detected in ticks in Branford and Bridgeport, stands in "stark contrast" to Lyme disease because it can be transmitted from a tick to a human in as little as 15 minutes, whereas Lyme disease can take as long as 24 to 48 hours to pass on. It can also be potentially fatal, Andreadis said.

"It does produce a serious disease which can, in some cases, prove to be fatal, and that's not the case in Lyme disease," Andreadis said. "The ticks that are infected with the virus can transmit it very rapidly when they feed."
Source


The geographic areas where Lyme disease is a bigger danger have grown dramatically, according to a new government study published Wednesday.
U.S. cases remain concentrated in the Northeast and upper Midwest. But now more areas in those regions are considered high risk. "The risk is expanding, in all directions," said the lead author, Kiersten Kugeler of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. There are now 260 counties where the number of Lyme disease cases is at least twice what's expected, given the size of each county's population.
Source
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JimB

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Re: Being Outdoors Can Be Dangerous
« Reply #11 on: August 14, 2015, 03:21:31 PM »
A tick bite led to amputations on all four of an Oklahoma woman's limbs. Doctors did it to save Jo Rogers' life from the aggressive bacteria the insect passed on.

It's the worst case of Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever they'd seen, Roger's cousin Lisa Morgan told CNN affiliate KOCO. Source
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JimB

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Re: Being Outdoors Can Be Dangerous
« Reply #12 on: April 04, 2017, 08:54:22 AM »
I'm not posting this article to promote a possible vaccination but rather a warning if you're like me and have plans to spend time outdoors. Seems like this is getting worse every year. When I was a kid the only time we worried about ticks was when I went to visit my aunt in Tennessee now they are all over the midwest and eastern states.

Lyme disease is set to explode

So how could a floor of acorns two years ago tell Ostfeld, a disease ecologist at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, New York, that 2017 would see an outbreak of Lyme disease? It’s all down to what happens next.

A bumper crop of the seeds – “like you were walking on ball bearings” – comes along every two to five years in Millbrook. Crucially, these nutrient-packed meals swell the mouse population: “2016 was a real mouse plague of a year,” he says. And mouse plagues bring tick plagues.

Soon after hatching, young ticks start “questing” – grasping onto grasses or leaves with their hind legs and waving their forelegs, ready to hitch a ride on whatever passes by, usually a mouse.

Once on board, the feast begins. Just one mouse can carry hundreds of immature ticks in their post-larval nymph stage.

This is where the problems for us start. Mouse blood carries the Lyme-causing bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi, which passes to a tick’s gut as it feeds. The tick itself is unharmed, but each time it latches onto a new host to feed, the bacteria can move from its gut to the blood – including that of any human passers-by.

“We predict the mice population based on the acorns and we predict infected nymph ticks with the mice numbers. Each step has a one year lag,” Ostfeld says.
Source
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Wally

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Re: Being Outdoors Can Be Dangerous
« Reply #13 on: April 04, 2017, 05:10:20 PM »
I have often said, somewhat cynically, that eventually everyone will get Lyme.  There were no ticks around us when we moved here 30 years ago. We would find them in southern Maine, but not near our place.  Now they're everywhere, and I know many people who have gotten the disease.  It's virtually impossible to take all the precautions recommended to avoid picking up a tick.  Alaska is beginning to sound better all the time.
So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants:  we have done that which was our duty to do.  Luke 17:10

JimB

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Re: Being Outdoors Can Be Dangerous
« Reply #14 on: April 05, 2017, 05:49:31 AM »
Wally, I've always thought Alaska sounded good. Especially coastal Alaska. Hmmm.... now to convince my wife. :)

On a more serious note, if you live in Michigan you might wanna pay close  attention to this recent article and even if you don't live here because the information outside of location is still a good warning.

The Lyme disease spike in Michigan correlates with the spread of blacklegged ticks here. In 1998, the ticks were established in only five counties — Berrien County in the southwestern-most Lower Peninsula, and four counties in the Upper Peninsula — and reported in 22 other counties. By 2016, however, the ticks were established in almost five times as many counties — established in 24 Michigan counties and reported in 18 others. The ticks have overtaken the entirety of the Lake Michigan shoreline in the Lower Peninsula, from Charlevoix to St. Joseph. But tick populations are not staying confined to coastal counties, becoming established increasingly to the east in the southern part of the state.

Tsao is always on the hunt for blacklegged ticks. In spring and summer, she can often be found dragging white corduroy cloth through Michigan forests, checking for the presence of the tiny bugs  — usually only 3 to 5 millimeters in size, but that can grow more than twice that when engorged on a host's blood. In the fall, Tsao and her students often check for the ticks on harvested deer at check stations during hunting season.

These days, the more Tsao looks, the more she finds.

"We know this is a real invasion," Tsao said.
Source
By communion with God in nature, the mind is uplifted, and the heart finds rest.  {DA 291.1}

Richard Myers

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Re: Being Outdoors Can Be Dangerous
« Reply #15 on: April 05, 2017, 07:40:25 AM »
It is a good idea to carry charcoal when in the forest. Spider, snake, bee, and tick bites need quick attention. Charcoal is a great blessing from God.
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JimB

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Re: Being Outdoors Can Be Dangerous
« Reply #16 on: April 05, 2017, 09:57:51 AM »
It is a good idea to carry charcoal when in the forest. Spider, snake, bee, and tick bites need quick attention. Charcoal is a great blessing from God.
We think alike. Charcoal weighs almost nothing and so I always take a little with me. I also always carry a bandana which has multiple purposes but one of them is making a poultice if necessary. 
By communion with God in nature, the mind is uplifted, and the heart finds rest.  {DA 291.1}

JimB

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Re: Being Outdoors Can Be Dangerous
« Reply #17 on: May 05, 2017, 10:30:29 AM »
"increases in tick-borne Powassan virus...

About 15% of patients who are infected and have symptoms are not going survive," said Lyons, who is also an assistant professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School. "Of the survivors, at least 50% will have long-term neurological damage that is not going to resolve."
Source

I found this statement interesting. It says 15% of the people who are infected and show symptoms. I can't help but wonder if these people who symptoms also have a decreased immune system. If so it behooves us to be eating correctly all the time. Not only do we need a good diet to have a healthy brain so we can communicate with God better but also to have a healthy body that can fight infections be they viral or bacterial.

I'm getting ready for a 5 day hike in a state that has tick issues. Because of all this talk about tick diseases, this year I will be doing something that I haven't done in the past. I will be treating my clothing. Last year I read an article saying that by treating your socks, shoes, and pant legs you can reduce the chances of a tick bite by 70%.
By communion with God in nature, the mind is uplifted, and the heart finds rest.  {DA 291.1}

JimB

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Re: Being Outdoors Can Be Dangerous
« Reply #18 on: May 31, 2017, 07:23:28 AM »
I thought some might find this video interesting in light of the discussion at hand.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbNtwluBYCY

However, I've been told that you don't want to do this because the tick has to vomit it's bacterium filled contents out first before it can dislodge itself. How true that is, I don't know at this point.

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JimB

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Re: Being Outdoors Can Be Dangerous
« Reply #19 on: August 23, 2017, 09:40:13 AM »
Officials say a 55-year-old Connecticut man died after contracting a tick-borne illness.

The state medical examiner's office says Michael Yoder, of New Milford, died Aug. 8 of liver and kidney failure after contracting Babesiosis from a tick bite.

Yoder's wife, Wendy, tells The News-Times her husband had a stomach bug for weeks, but by the time he was diagnosed it was too late.

Babesiosis is a disease caused by a parasite that gives people flu-like symptoms. In severe cases, the disease can cause anemia that leads to organ failure.


Source
By communion with God in nature, the mind is uplifted, and the heart finds rest.  {DA 291.1}