New Tick-Borne Illness Could Be Worse Than Lyme Disease

Doctors May Not Even Know To Look For Borrelia Miyamotoi Infection

July 2, 2013 6:53 PM

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — A new disease spread by deer ticks has already infected 100,000 New Yorkers since the state first started keeping track.  As CBS 2’s Dr. Max Gomez reported, the new deer tick-borne illness resembles Lyme disease, but is a different malady altogether – and it could be even worse.  The common deer tick is capable of spreading dangerous germs into the human bloodstream with its bite. However, Lyme disease is one of many diseases that ticks carry.  The latest disease is related to Lyme, and an infected person will suffer similar symptoms. 

“Patients with this illness will develop, perhaps, fever, headache, flu-like symptoms, muscle pains — so they’ll have typical Lyme-like flu symptoms in the spring, summer, early fall,” said Dr. Brian Fallon of Columbia University. “But most of them will not develop the typical rash that you see with Lyme disease.” Fallon, a renowned expert on Lyme disease at the New York Psychiatric Institute, said the importance of the new bacterium –called Borrelia miyamotoi — is that it might explain cases of what looked like chronic Lyme disease, but did not test positive for Lyme….To ReadMore….