Winnipeg Free Press, Canada: Lyme-carrying tick numbers on rise here
Rate of cases in humans growing, province warns
By Kristin Annable May 5th, 2016 Winnipeg Free Press
Manitobans will be ticked off by news from the province about a particularly annoying arachnid.
More ticks are migrating to Manitoba, leading to increases in cases of tick-borne Lyme disease, warned the province’s director of communicable diseases, Richard Baydack
“Over time and in the last several years we can expect this to continue, we can expect to see more and more ticks as the years go by,” Baydack told the Free Press Thursday. “It is just a gradual phenomenon that is happening over time.”
The result is rates of reported cases of Lyme disease have climbed over the past five years. The number of reported cases of Lyme disease has more than tripled — from 11 reported in 2009 to 36 in 2015, according to data from the Public Health Agency of Canada. Last year, the province also began recording infection rates of two other tick-borne diseases, anaplasmosis and babesiosis, and are still reviewing the results.
“These diseases are emerging in Manitoba. We can expect over time we can see more human cases of Lyme disease,” he said. “It is through the tick that all of those diseases are transmitted.”