孤星蜱可能很快就會占領你的后院

孤星蜱可能很快就會占領你的后院

The climate crisis is making us more vulnerable to ticks in an unprecedented and growing threat to public health, according to a new report.

一份新的報告顯示，氣候危機使我們更容易受到蜱蟲的侵害，這對公眾健康構成了前所未有的、日益嚴重的威脅。

Bacterial and protozoan tick-borne diseases doubled in the United States between 2004 and 2016, the report notes, and in 2017, more than 90% of the 60,000 vector-borne diseases in the United States were linked to these particular bloodsucking bugs.

報告指出，從2004年到2016年，美國的細菌和原生動物蜱傳疾病增加了一倍，而在2017年，美國6萬種蟲媒傳播疾病中，超過90%與這些寄生臭蟲有關。

The warmer temperatures brought by the climate crisis, in addition to ecological changes and reforestation, have extended the bugs' range into regions that had not seen certain types of ticks for many decades, if ever. And the report published in the New England Journal of Medicine Tuesday warns that we should be "bracing for the worst."

氣候危機帶來的氣溫升高，再加上生態(tài)變化和植樹造林，使得這些蟲子的活動范圍擴大到了幾十年來從未見過某些類型蜱蟲的地區(qū)，如果曾經(jīng)有過的話。星期二發(fā)表在《新英格蘭醫(yī)學雜志》上的報告警告說，我們應該“做好最壞的打算”。

The lone star tick, a tick distinguished by a white dot -- a "lone star" -- on the back of the female of the species, had been commonly found in the South. Global warming has made more regions tick-friendly. Now it also lives in the Upper Midwest, in the Northeast, and has even moved into eastern Canada.

孤星蜱(lone star tick)是一種蜱，其特征是雌蜱背上有一個白點，被稱為“孤星”(lone star)，在南方很常見。全球變暖使得更多的地區(qū)變得適應蜱蟲（生活）。現(xiàn)在它也生活在中西部北部，在東北部，甚至已經(jīng)移動到加拿大東部。

Warmer temperatures may also extend their "active season," researchers said, and make them much more abundant.

研究人員說，溫度升高還可能延長它們的“活躍季節(jié)”，使它們更加豐富。

The good news -- if there is good news when it comes to ticks -- is that lone star ticks don't carry Borrelia burgdorferi, the main bacteria that causes Lyme disease. But they do carry the bacteria that causes southern tick-associated rash illness, or STARI, a rash similar to Lyme disease that also comes with fever, fatigue, headache and muscle pains. While doctors know to watch for Lyme disease, STARI has been less common and is often misdiagnosed, the report said.

好消息是，如果有關于蜱蟲的好消息，那就是孤星蜱并不攜帶引起萊姆病的主要細菌——伯氏疏螺旋體。但它們確實攜帶了導致南方蜱蟲相關皮疹病(STARI)的細菌，STARI是一種類似萊姆病的皮疹，還伴有發(fā)燒、疲勞、頭痛和肌肉疼痛。報告稱，雖然醫(yī)生知道要注意萊姆病，但STARI不太常見，而且經(jīng)常被誤診。

The lone star ticks also cause tularemia, known as rabbit or deer fly fever, a rare infectious disease that attacks the skin, lymph nodes and eyes; ehrlichiosis, a bacterial infection that can cause flu-like symptoms; Heartland virus disease, a virus that can also cause flu-like symptoms and often leads to hospitalization or even death; and alpha-gal syndrome, also known as red meat allergy.

孤星蜱還會引起兔熱病或鹿蠅熱，這是一種罕見的傳染病，會侵襲皮膚、淋巴結和眼睛;埃立克體病是一種細菌性感染可引起流感樣癥狀;中心地帶病毒病，這種病毒也會引起類似流感的癥狀，經(jīng)常導致住院甚至死亡;以及阿爾法-半乳糖綜合征，也被稱為紅肉過敏。

And these ticks are "aggressive," according to Richard Ostfeld, a disease ecologist with the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies who studies Lyme and other tick-borne diseases.

加里生態(tài)系統(tǒng)研究所的疾病生態(tài)學家理查德·奧斯菲爾德表示，這些蜱蟲具有“侵略性”，奧斯菲爾德研究萊姆病和其他蜱傳疾病。

" 'Aggressive' is a weird word to use with ticks, but they actually chase you and are very different from our wimpy black-legged ticks, the ones that have brought us Lyme disease. Those are slow, deliberate crawlers, who would have a hard time making it across my desk in half a day," Ostfeld said. "Lone star ticks can detect you and they basically run after you. They are really upsetting. It feels like they are hunting you.

“‘侵略性’這個詞用在蜱蟲身上很奇怪，但它們實際上是在追趕你，與我們身上那些給我們帶來萊姆病的懦弱的黑腿蜱非常不同。那些都是慢吞吞、不慌不忙的家伙，他們很難在半天內爬過我的辦公桌。”奧斯菲爾德說。“孤星蜱能發(fā)現(xiàn)你，它們基本上會跟著你跑。它們真的令人頭大。感覺就像它們在追捕你。

"Well actually, it doesn't just feel like that. They are hunting you."

“嗯，實際上，并不只是感覺如此。他們確實在追捕你。”

He said it's good to raise awareness about the problem now -- he only wishes it went further to encourage public health leaders to be more proactive. Instead of just surveilling the diseasesticks cause, as the report suggests, he hopes governments will invest in more tick research and create a surveillance program for this tick and for others.

他說，現(xiàn)在提高人們對這一問題的認識是有益的，他只希望能進一步鼓勵公共衛(wèi)生領導人更加積極主動。他希望各國政府能投資更多的蜱蟲研究，并為這種蜱蟲和其他蜱蟲建立一個監(jiān)控項目，而不是像報告所建議的那樣，僅僅調查蜱蟲引起的疾病。