Norwegian researchers revealed there is another tick-borne disease caused by bacteria carried by ticks. The insects can also infect humans and cattle with A. phagocytophilum, the journal Lancet Infectious Disease reported.
The scientists have previously described the tick-borne infection caused by A. phagocytophilum as the most widespread tick-borne infection in animals in Europe. In 2016, Norwegian doctors at Stavanger University Hospital discovered a case of anaplasmosis in a man who had experienced recurring attacks of high fever, headaches and achy muscles over the previous 10 days.
The doctors learned that the man often spent time camping in the wood areas where ticks often infect sheep with A. phagocytophilum. After taking the tests, doctors found the bacteria there.
“This was the first confirmed case we have seen in Rogaland County,”
said Åse Berg, chief attending physician at Stavanger University Hospital. During the further research, Berg found out that US faced A. phagocytophilum, too. Farmers are painfully aware that bacteria is out there. The Norwegian researcher Johan Bakken, who is currently working at the University of Minnesota confirmed that the first case of anaplasmosis in humans was described in the US in 1994, in Europe in 1997.
More than 15,000 cases of anaplasmosis have been detected in the US since then, and the American experience means that the science knows a bit about the course of the disease in humans.
Many people think they just got flue, while the symptoms of the disease develop seven to ten days after the bite and are reminiscent of the flu, with fever, headache and muscle aches. In many cases, the disease clears up by itself, without the infected individual having any serious or lasting ailments.
