Survey finds inconsistent, under-supported tick surveillance across US
In the face of the increasing spread of Lyme and other tick-borne diseases in the United States, tick surveillance and control efforts across the country are inconsistent and hampered by lack of infrastructure and financial support, according to a new survey of professionals in the field.
The survey, reported yesterday in the Journal of Medical Entomology, revealed that only 46% of public health and vector-control agencies conduct active surveillance for ticks, and only 12% engage in tick control efforts.
Conducted in 2018, the survey focused on 140 vector-borne disease professionals working in state, county, and local public health and vector-control agencies. It was done by researchers from the five Vector-Borne Disease Regional Centers of Excellence supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
About two thirds of respondents (65%) said their programs engage in passive tick surveillance, such as accepting tick samples from the public, but only 46% said the programs engage in routine active surveillance, such as focused collection of tick samples, according to an Entomological Society of America (ESA) press release about the findings.
Also, only 26% of respondents said their agencies conduct or financially support testing of tick samples for pathogens, and just 7% try to assess the presence of such pathogens in the local animal hosts from which ticks acquire those pathogens. Tick pathogen testing programs were most common in the Northeast (70.8%), Upper and Central Midwest (64.3%), and West (71.4%).
Only 12% of respondents said their agencies engage in or financially support tick control, with those efforts focused mainly on reducing tick presence on animals such as deer and rodents.
"Ticks are responsible for the majority of our vector-borne illnesses in the U.S., and our programming does not adequately meet the need in its current form, for both surveillance and control," Emily M. Mader, MPH, MPP, lead author of the study, said in the press release. She is program manager at the Northeast Regional Center for Excellence in Vector-Borne Diseases, housed at Cornell University.
The release notes that $150 million in federal funding approved last year and recent CDC guidance documents should help address the needs revealed by the survey.
Jun 17 J Med Entomol study
Jun 17 ESA press release
Plague cluster in the DRC sickens 10, kills 4
An investigation is under way into a plague cluster in Ituri province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), according to a post from provincial health officials and epidemiologist Anne Laudisoit, PhD, from EcoHealth Alliance submitted to ProMED Mail, the online reporting system of the International Society for Infectious Diseases.
So far, 10 cases have been detected, 4 of them fatal. Eight patients were diagnosed as having bubonic plague, and 2 have the septicemic version.
The first patient appears to be a 4-year-old boy who died on Jun 11 before samples could be obtained. His father died from the disease 3 days later, prompting a nurse at the local health center to notify health zone authorities. The man's saliva sample was positive for plague. Of 6 patients tested, 4 were positive for plague. All contacts who attended funerals of the deceased were given chemoprophylaxis, as were patients' household contacts.
According to the report, a recent rat die-off occurred in two DRC villages where the patients were from. Investigators are monitoring the situation, despite insecurity in the area and a lockdown due to COVID-19.
The Yersinia pestis bacterium that causes plague is spread by bites from infected rodent fleas. Bubonic plague poses no risk of person-to-person spread, but if left untreated it can lead to a bloodstream infection.
Jun 17 ProMED Mail post