Are mosquitoes, ticks and fleas turning California into a disease hotspot?
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Set us as preferred Some days it feels like we’re losing a battle against mosquitoes, ticks, fleas, flies and worms.Just this month, tularemia, also known as rabbit fever and caused by a bacterium in ticks and deer flies, was detected in people living on Long Island.
A park in Marin County was shut down in July after it was found to be teeming with fleas, which can carry plague and typhus.And in April, Rickettsia, a rare but deadly tick-borne bacterium, was found in a person living in Sonoma County.Lyme disease and Alpha-gal syndrome are expanding their range.
Dengue and typhus are increasing.There are still reports of West Nile, Zika and Chikungunya, plus the potential introductions of Chagas and rat lungworm disease.
Some of these are contracted overseas, while others are seemingly settling in for the long haul.Experts say there is no single reason for this surge in disease.
Some of it may be hyped news, headline sensationalism.When everyone is writing about an outbreak of a disease, no matter how isolated, it can feel more pervasive and widespread than it actually is.
Increased monitoring and more advanced disease tracking can also amplify the sense that something new is afoot, even if it was always there.But in some cases, there really does appear to be an increase — and California is front and center.You have to ask, “what are we doing to the planet and does that mean we will encounter more diseases?” said Janet Foley, a disease ecologist at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine.“The answer is: yes.”This year, conditions including a record-smashing March heat wave led to a surge in California’s native Culex mosquitoes, the transmitters of West Nile virus.
Most infections are asymptomatic, but about one in 100 involve neuroinvasive disease: meningitis, encephalitis or paralysis.There’s no specifi...