Tick season in most areas of the U.S. begins in April and lasts throughout the warmer months, with bite cases trailing off around September, though activity is reported year-round.
With the range of many tick species expanding by over 300% since the late 1990’s and Lyme disease cases almost doubling from 17,000 in the year 2000 to an estimated 30,000 cases in the United States today, the likelihood for Navy and Marine Corps personnel to encounter a disease-carrying ticks is high.
“Superimposing a map of DoD locations in the United States over the distribution of ticks and tick-borne disease illustrates why the DoD public health community must take every opportunity to reduce the risk of tick-borne disease to our personnel,” said Navy Entomologist Lt. Cmdr. Michael Kavanaugh, with the Armed Forces Pest Management Board in Silver Spring, MD.
It is best to always remove a tick as soon as possible. Ticks can be submitted to the Tick-Borne Disease Laboratory as part of the Military Tick Identification/ Infection Confirmation Kit (MilTICK) program, formerly known as the DoD Human Tick Test Kit program. When received, the species will be identified and tested for the presence of illness-causing pathogens. Test results are generally reported within two weeks. The MilTICK program is available for all DoD employees and dependents.
Due to increased risk posed by ticks and the death of Senator Kay Hagen from complications due to Powassan virus in October of 2019, the Kay Hagen Tick Act was signed into law on December 2019.
One of the provisions of the Act is the development of a National Vector-borne Disease Strategy to combat tick-borne illness by expanding research, improving testing and treatment, and coordinating efforts across federal agencies and the DoD.
“Tools, to include the MilTICK test, and other surveillance efforts provide critical information necessary to better identify high risk areas at military installations, resulting in proactive control strategies to maximize personnel readiness,” said Kavanaugh. “These prevention and control efforts align with DoD vector-borne disease program objectives as part of the whole of government approach reflected in the National Vector-borne Disease Strategy.”
Instructions on how to properly remove a tick and submit it to the MilTICK program can be found at the link below: https://phc.amedd.army.mil/PHC%20Resource%20Library/HowtoCheckforTicksandRemoval_FS_18-092-0919.pdf
Other tick resources are available through the Navy Entomology Center of Excellence (NECE). For more information, visit their website at: https://www.med.navy.mil/sites/nmcphc/nece/Pages/default.aspx
| Date Taken: | 08.12.2020 |
| Date Posted: | 08.12.2020 12:01 |
| Story ID: | 375817 |
| Location: | PORTSMOUTH, VA, US |
| Web Views: | 223 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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