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Waldo County resident dies of rare Powassan virus

Date:?? Dr. Michael Levin These "black-legged ticks", Ixodes scapularis, are found on a wide rage of hosts including mammals, birds and reptiles. Black-legged ticks, I. scapularis are known to transmit Lyme disease, Borrelia burgdorferi, to humans and animals during feeding, when they insert their mouth parts into the skin of a host, and slowly take in the nutrient-rich host blood.
U.S. CDC
Date:?? Dr. Michael Levin These "black-legged ticks", Ixodes scapularis, are found on a wide rage of hosts including mammals, birds and reptiles. Black-legged ticks, I. scapularis are known to transmit Lyme disease, Borrelia burgdorferi, to humans and animals during feeding, when they insert their mouth parts into the skin of a host, and slowly take in the nutrient-rich host blood.

The Maine Center for Disease Control says a Waldo County resident has died of Powassan virus after being bitten by an infected deer or woodchuck tick.

The CDC says the resident developed neurologic symptoms and died while in the hospital.

Symptoms of Powassan virus infection include fever, headache, vomiting, confusion or memory loss, and can begin within a month of being bitten by an infected tick.

The CDC says ticks are active now in Maine and residents should avoid wooded areas and tall grass where ticks live, use an EPA approved tick repellent, and do tick checks every day on family members and pets.