Free Republic

WASHINGTON – The Centers for Disease Control is warning of the emergence of a far deadlier tick-related virus than Lyme Disease – one that kills 10 percent of those infected and permanently disables the other 50 percent. It’s called POW for short, or Powassan, and it, like Lyme, is carried by deer. Recent cases have been noted in the Northeast U.S. and the Great Lakes states. The virus can cause inflammation of the brain, leading to death in 10 percent of cases and permanent disability in 50 percent of cases. Signs and symptoms of infection can include fever, headache, vomiting,...

A new tick-borne disease that may be stealthily infecting some Americans has been discovered by Yale researchers working with Russian scientists. The disease is caused by a spirochete bacterium called Borrelia miyamotoi, which is distantly related to Borrelia burgdorferi, the spirochete that causes Lyme disease. B. miyamotoi has been found — albeit relatively rarely — in the same deer tick species that transmit Lyme, and the Yale researchers estimate that perhaps 3,000 Americans a year pick it up from tick bites, compared with about 25,000 who get Lyme disease. But there is no diagnostic test for it in this country,...