CDC: babesiosis risk in northeast/upper midwest travel

(HealthDay) -- Adults and children are vulnerable to a host of tick- and mosquito-borne diseases in many Midwestern, Northeastern, and Southwestern states, according to two reports published in the July 13 issue of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Morbidity & Mortality Weekly Report.

Barbara L. Herwaldt, M.D., of the CDC in Atlanta, and colleagues report on the results of national surveillance in 2011 for babesiosis -- a disease that is spread either by ticks, through blood transfusions, or congenitally. The researchers found 1,124 confirmed cases in 15 of 18 states reporting the disease, with 97 percent of the cases reported in Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Minnesota, and Wisconsin.

Nicole P. Lindsey, also of the CDC in Atlanta, and colleagues describe a variety of mosquito- and tick-borne infections, known as arboviruses, reported in 2011. West Nile virus outnumbered any other, with 712 reports, and La Crosse virus was most common in children, reported in 130. Other arboviruses reported included Powassan virus (16), St. Louis encephalitis virus (six), Eastern equine encephalitis virus (four), and Jamestown Canyon virus (three).

"West Nile virus and other arboviruses continue to cause focal outbreaks and severe illness in substantial numbers of persons in the United States," Lindsey and colleagues conclude.

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