A new long-term analysis has confirmed that ticks carrying multiple potentially fatal diseases are becoming increasingly common across the northeastern US, raising some serious public health concerns. This isn’t just about single infections anymore; researchers are finding a growing number of blacklegged ticks, popularly known as deer ticks, are infected with several disease-causing pathogens at once.
According to Newsweek, this concerning news comes from nearly a decade of tick surveillance led by Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies disease ecologist Shannon LaDeau. Her team worked in partnership with the SUNY Center for Vector-Borne Diseases at Upstate Medical University. The findings point to a much more complex and potentially dangerous landscape for tick-borne diseases, especially because different infections need entirely different treatments.
