Tick-borne illnesses increasing | WANE 15

(CBS NEWS) – Cases of tick-borne illnesses are increasing. It’s very important to take precautions against the threat, according to experts.

Hunters are part of a collaboration with Baylor University and the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department to check animals they hunt for ticks. They then send them in to be tested for infections.

“We work with the hunter population because we thought they could be at high risk. Um, and in doing that, we realized they were exposed to all kinds of bugs,” said Dr. Sarah Gunter, an assistant professor with Baylor College of Medicine, Texas Children’s Hospital. “We want to know what the risk is in an area because if we’re going to diagnose people based off of symptoms, you have to know that there’s a risk for that disease in the area.”

It’s a risk Tony Galbo has been campaigning to create greater awareness of. His 5-year-old daughter, Gabby, died after developing the tick-borne disease Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever twelve years ago. Her illness wasn’t diagnosed in time, according to Galbo.

“It’s continued to be ignored…. Mandatory reporting, mandatory mapping, and public awareness. That’s all I’m asking for. If we can start doing that, there’s gonna be less and less cases missed,” said Galbo.

Over the past twenty years, cases of Lyme Disease have increased. The disease is the most common, but not the only, tick-borne infection in the US.

“Things like changes in the seasons, so summer’s getting hotter, summer’s getting longer, um, allow ticks to move into areas that maybe it was historically too cold for them to be…People moving into areas where they historically haven’t had people can put individuals in closer contact to animals and wildlife and result in what we call spillover of disease,” said Dr. Gunter.

To protect yourself from ticks, make sure you’re wearing proper clothing. After coming back inside, run your clothing through the dryer to kill any ticks. Also, check your body carefully for ticks.