Biosecurity

Cape Cod Ticks Present a New Health Concern

A recent study showed that some deer ticks on Cape Cod are carrying thePowassan virus, which can be transmitted to humans. While a Powassan infection is potentially serious, in most cases people with infected with Powassan never show any symptoms, according to an expert in infectious diseases.

“It’s not a reason for people to be extremely worried,” said Patrick J. Cahill, MD, a physician in the infectious disease clinical service departments at Cape Cod Hospital and Falmouth Hospital. “It’s like the other viral encephalidities in that in the vast majority of cases, it’s sub-clinical. Most people are not even going to know that they have been exposed to it. It may play a role in some of the longer-term neurologic symptoms that have been traditionally blamed on Lyme.”

Larry Dapsis, entomologist and deer tick project coordinator with Barnstable County, collaborated with the Laboratory of Medical Zoology at UMass-Amherst this spring to look for the Powassan virus in deer ticks in six Cape Cod locations. Infected ticks were found in Falmouth, Brewster, Orleans and Truro. The percentage of ticks infected with the virus ranged from 2.5 to 10.5 percent, he said.