For most of the country, weekly emergency visits for tick bites are at the highest rates for this time of year since 2017, according to the CDC.
That's also true for Pennsylvania.
"We had some warm weather pretty early on, we started seeing tick bite-related emergency department [visits] really get quite high, and yes, it's been among the highest that we've ever recorded here in Pennsylvania," said Leah Lind, the lyme and other tick-borne disease coordinator for Pennsylvania Department of Health.
Pennsylvania's tick season lasts all year. But spring and early summer marks a peak in that year-round season.
"The next couple weeks are about the peak, that'll be the greatest number of exposures that will happen, and then once the weather breaks for the hot summer, you'll start to see those trends start to come down," said Dr. Nicole Chinnici, the director of the Dr. Jane Hoffman Wildlife Genetics Institute that houses the PA Tick Research Lab at East Stroudsburg University.
Tick-borne illnesses
According to the state's Department of Health, Lyme Disease is the most commonly reported tickborne disease in Pennsylvania. It's transmitted by deer ticks.
East Stroudsburg University's tick lab tests for the five most common tickborne illnesses, which according to Chinnici are, "Lyme disease, anaplasmosis, babesiosis, hard tick relapsing fever and Powassan virus."
The state's Department of Health also started tracking positive cases of alpha-gal syndrome, which can cause an animal product allergy. The allergy has so far been linked most commonly to lone star ticks, but all ticks can carry it in their saliva. Pennsylvania does not have as dense of a lone star tick population as southern parts of the United States.
"Alpha-gal is a molecule that is in most mammalian meat products. It is not in humans, and it is also carried in this tick saliva. So, if the tick bites a person, that person can become sensitized to that molecule, and they can, in some rare cases, go on to develop this meat allergy" Lind said. "Most people will not, but some people will, and so they'll be allergic to eating any mammalian meat. Sometimes that can include dairy products, and sometimes it can include things like broth or other products like gel caps."
A lone star tick exposure does not mean an inevitable alpha-gal syndrome diagnosis, experts said.
"It's like any other allergy, like a peanut allergy, you can or may not get the allergy, so it could be exposure after a single bite, it could be exposure after several bites, but it's an a person's immune response to the saliva of the tick that then mimics the structure of what you see in red meats, so in future consumption of red meats, your body may associate those as being exposed to a tick and start to give you an immune-like reaction," Chinnici said.
Fewer than 50 alpha-gal syndrome cases have been reported in Pennsylvania so far this year, Lind said.
Between 2017 and 2022, Pennsylvania identified about 200 people with alpha-gal syndrome. That's based on voluntarily provided information since it is not what Lind called a "mandatory reportable condition."
Also, pet owners do not have to worry about their animals getting it.
"Our companion animals already carry this molecule, so this is not something that they would develop a sensitivity to," she said.
East Stroudsburg's tick lab does not test for alpha-gal.
"We don't test for alpha-gal because that's just individual based, and every tick carries it in their saliva, so that's important to note. We do get a lot of calls on that if we test for that, but we don't, because that is again an allergy and it's person-dependent," Chinnici said.
How to protect yourself from ticks
Chinnici recommends practicing constant tick prevention.
"We live in a very dense area of ticks, we have a lot of Lyme disease and other tickborne pathogens, so we just want to make sure that we are removing ticks and not allowing ticks to attach to us or our pets," she said.
TICK PREVENTION
The Pennsylvania Department of Health makes the following recommendations:
● Use an EPA-registered insect repellent
● Permethrin, a chemical insect repellent, is recommended for use on socks, shoes, clothing, tents, sleeping bags and anything that is cloth.
● Perform a thorough tick check — around the hairline, behind ears, belly button, behind knees and other hard to get to parts of the body — after being outdoors.
Chinnici said the greatest risk of exposure is "our own backyard when we're doing yardwork."
"Yard work is a risky activity, so we absolutely recommend using all tick prevention strategies when doing yard work," Lind added. "If you're playing outside, if you're outside with your pet, do tick checks on your pet as well. Talk to your veterinarian about how you can prevent tick bites for your pet."
Immediately remove a tick from the body or from pets if found.
"Sometimes we hear that people want to go to their doctor, or they want to go to urgent care, or something like that, and that's understandable, but the longer that the tick is attached, the more chance there is for disease transmission," Lind said.
And, ticks can be tested for tickborne disease after removal.
"You want to stick with the fine point tweezer, remove it from the base of the mouth part straight up and out. Seal that tick in a clean ziploc bag. Visit our website, ticklab.org. Pennsylvania residents get free tick testing," Chinnici said.
And keep an eye out for symptoms of tickborne illnesses.
"That can look like a fever, chills, rashes, things like that, especially in the summer months when we see most of our cases, not to hesitate to contact their healthcare provider," Lind said.
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