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A Mysterious Tick Disease Has Been Spotted in New York
Gizmodo • • health
Key Points:
- Ticks in the U.S., particularly the lone star tick, are expanding into new regions, bringing diseases like southern tick–associated rash illness (STARI) to areas where they were previously uncommon, complicating diagnosis.
- STARI, often mistaken for Lyme disease due to similar symptoms like the bull’s eye rash, is linked to the lone star tick and has no confirmed cause, with Borrelia lonestari bacteria suspected but not definitively proven.
- A recent case in New York involved an 8-year-old girl initially diagnosed with Lyme disease who was later identified as having STARI after the tick was examined, highlighting diagnostic challenges as tick ranges overlap.
- The expansion of both lone star and blacklegged ticks into each other's territories raises the risk of misdiagnosis, emphasizing the need for improved laboratory tests and the importance of preserving ticks after bites for accurate identification.
- Researchers stress that better diagnostic tools are needed since current Lyme disease tests can yield false negatives and no specific blood tests exist for STARI, making clinical differentiation difficult in endemic areas.
