BANGOR, Maine (NCS/WABI) – The tick season is simply getting underway and already in the U.S. emergency room visits for tick bites have elevated roughly 25% this April in contrast with April 2025, in accordance with the Centers for Disease Control. Data exhibits 85 out of each 100,000 emergency room visits are tick-related.
According to the Maine CDC, there are greater than 400 Lyme illness instances in the state as of April 2026. Most instances are in Knox, Hancock, Waldo, and Washington counties.
Thomas Hart with Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health mentioned the rise in tick bites might be traced to adjustments in local weather and land use permitting ticks to unfold and are available into contact with a better variety of individuals.
By far, the commonest tickborne sickness is Lyme illness, a bacterial an infection transmitted to people by means of the chew of an contaminated tick.
Recent CDC estimates counsel about 476,000 individuals could also be recognized and handled for this sickness in the U.S. yearly.
“There used to be a Lyme disease vaccine called Lymerix in the late 90s and early 2000s,” mentioned Thomas hart of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. ”This was finally pulled off the market resulting from low gross sales.”
Hart says a related vaccine is in its remaining spherical of scientific trials earlier than it heads to the Food and Drug Administration for potential approval.
He says it’s additionally necessary to forestall tick bites from even taking place
“As somebody who works with Lyme disease, I definitely don’t want to get Lyme disease. So if you see me out there, I have my pants tucked into my socks and my light-colored clothing. I’m using deet, I’m showering as soon as I get inside to wash off any ticks that might have caught a ride.”
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