A tick carrying a rare disease infected a Sarasota-area man while he was clearing brush in the southern part of the county, spreading the first case of Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever seen here since 2005.
The man, who is 52 and lives in Sarasota County, was sick for more than a week but has fully recovered. He did not realize he had been bitten until he came down with flu-like symptoms and went to see his doctor, said county epidemiologist Scott Pritchard.
Although he was bitten in September, health officials did not announce it until Tuesday. Testing to confirm the case took several weeks.
Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, usually signaled by high fever and a red, blotchy rash that spreads from the hands and feet, is the worst of all tick-borne bacteria illnesses. If not treated with antibiotics, it kills 20 percent of people who contract it.
While named for the Western mountain region where it was discovered, more than half of cases occur in the Southeastern United States. Even so, only 19 cases were reported in Florida last year. And only 70 percent of those involved bites that actually occurred in the state.
That someone in Sarasota came down with the illness is not a sign it is suddenly prevalent here, Pritchard said. Data show that ticks across the state are carriers, and infections are as constant as they are varied by location.
To transmit the fever bacteria, the ticks must hang on, sucking blood, for six to eight hours — longer than it takes to transmit the more common Lyme Disease.
But once a tick has grabbed hold, the kind that carry the fever, mostly dog ticks and wood ticks, may be difficult to spot. They are tiny, some stretching only a millimeter long. Pritchard says they can be as small as the letter D on a dime.
“Most people think of big nasty ticks they can feel or detect,” Pritchard said. “The ticks that transmit this disease can be very small.”
It is mostly children under 15 who contract the disease, although the previous reported case in Sarasota involved a 50-year-old man.
More than 90 percent of those who get it are infected between April and September. Suggestions for avoiding ticks include using a repellent with DEET; wearing light-colored clothing, so ticks are easier to spot; and tucking pant legs into your socks.
