Hunters beware: Powassan virus spread by ticks

With the weather warming up and anticipation for the fall hunt looming, hunters scouting through tall grasses, fields and forests need to take extra precaution against ticks. While ticks are already known carriers of pathogens that cause Lyme and other diseases, they’ve also recently been linked to another rare and potentially life-threatening tick-borne disease: the Powassan virus.

While only about 75 cases have been reported within the U.S. over the past ten years – mostly in the northeastern and Great Lakes regions – scientists say tick populations and tick-borne illnesses are on the rise. Warmer consecutive winters means more ticks since the pesky parasite can thrive as long as temperatures are above freezing. In fact, across the East Coast and into Canada, scientists are concerned that ticks are causing permanent damage to moose populations. Tick-borne infection rates are highest during late spring, early summer and mid-fall when ticks are most active and when hunters are most likely to be in the fields and forests.

Powassan is especially dangerous. Of those infected, about half have permanent neurological symptoms and 10% of all cases are fatal, USA Today reports. Those who have been exposed to the disease through a tick bite experience fever, vomiting, seizures and memory loss, yet symptoms aren’t always quick to appear. Of the three ticks that are carriers of Powassan – lxodes cookie, lxodes marxi and lxodes scapularis – the third one, which is commonly referred to as a deer tick, likes to prey on humans.

“About 15% of patients who are infected and have symptoms are not going survive,” Dr. Jennifer Lyons, chief of the Division of Neurological Infections and Inflammatory Diseases at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, told CNN. “Of the survivors, at least 50% will have long-term neurological damage that is not going to resolve.”

Scientists have also discovered the Powassan virus in a rising number of deer.

"So it does seem that there are more and more deer that they're finding that have been infected with this virus," says Lyons. "So we should expect it to increase in human disease incidence over the next few years."

As experts anticipate an expected outbreak of this extreme and fatal disease, Sen. Chuck Schumer has asked the federal government “to step up efforts to research and develop vaccines” for tick-borne diseases. While Congress passed legislation last year to do just this, Schumer says the Department of Health and Human Services “has been too slow to implement” vaccine development and treatment strategies, according to the New York Daily News.

“Lyme disease and other tick-borne diseases are in a sprint to spread this summer, but the federal response to combat this trend is moving along at a snail’s pace. We must . . . do more now to protect kids and families,” Schumer told the New York Daily News.

How can hunters, especially those located in the Great Lakes and northeastern regions of the country where Powassan seems to be most prevalent, practice tick prevention? They can practice these 3 steps to avoid ticks while hunting. They can also wear insect repellant when out in the fields and forests, inspect clothing and skin and bath or shower once inside or at least change clothing if showering isn’t an option. There is a clothing line with Elimitick technology claiming to do an excellent job at repelling ticks. Also, remember that if you have a hunting dog, make sure it wears a flea and tick collar and inspect its coat regularly.