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POWASSAN: THE OTHER TICK BORNE ILLNESS
Thursday, June 30th, 2011 -- 12:26 pm
Posted by Riley Hebert-News Director
 You’ve heard of Lyme Disease, but there’s another tick-borne illness you should be concerned about.
Powassan Virus is lesser known and is more closely related to West Nile Virus than Lyme Disease.
The Minnesota Department of Health reported their first death related to Powassan virus yesterday.
"We do monitor for that infection here in Wisconsin. We do have cases," says Zip Johnson, a vector born epidemiologist with the Wisconsin Department of Health Services Division of Public Health, "it's rare: from 2003 to 2010, we saw about seven cases of Powassan."
Those aren’t very impressive numbers, but Johnson and others are trying to build awareness of the illness, which is not treatable and fatal in about 10% of infections.
There are no commercial tests available to single out Powassan and health officials feel it may be widely under-reported.
"People are not testing for it," she warns, "so, we'd like physicians and residents to think about this as a potential illness and for physicians to contact us if they need to have this tested."
Like Lyme Disease, Powassan is carried by deer ticks, which are on the increase in the upper Midwest. It presents like West Nile Virus with fever, headache, vomiting, weakness, confusion and memory loss between one and five weeks of an infectious tick bite.
It’s another important reason to use tick repellents containing DEET or permethrin when out in nature, Johnson says.
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