You've heard of Lyme disease, but Minnesota's ticks carry another illness
With the warm weather comes deer ticks. They carry not only Lyme disease but also Powassan virus.
"Most of the day is spent in front of a microscope identifying mosquitoes and ticks and black flies," said Scott Larson.
Such is the life of an entomologist at the Metropolitan Mosquito Control District. But despite the daily routine, they're always discovering something new.
"Ticks are much more important as far as human disease goes in this area," said Larson, an assistant entomologist.
Lyme disease gets a lot of attention, but as they've seen an uptick in deer tick numbers over the years, another illness has caught their eye.
"It's an extremely rare disease but it is something you should be very aware of," said Janet Jarnefeld with tick vector services.
It's called Powassan virus and it can be fatal to the elderly or people who are immuno-compromised. While it has similar symptoms to Lyme disease, with a headache and vomiting, it's believed it infects people much faster.
"For Powassan virus, it's unknown but you could possibly become infected only 15 minutes after a tick bites you," said Jarnefeld.
Unlike other tick-borne diseases, there is no treatment or cure for Powassan virus. The illness has to run its course.
But prevention is the same: wearing long pants and boots in the woods and using certain insect repellents.
In Minnesota, there were only 14 cases of Powassan last year. But it's enough of a concern that MMCD has started collecting samples to learn as much as they can about the virus.
"There are always new things to learn and new things coming up on the horizons," said Jarnefeld.
The Metropolitan Mosquito Control District says it's too early to tell if tick numbers will be high this year, but they did collect a high number of larval ticks last year, which sometimes means an increase the following year. Experts say Powassan virus originated in Canadian ticks before coming to the U.S.
