“Understanding the Powassan Virus: Symptoms, Transmission, and Prevention Methods”

REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA — Robert Weymouth (58) from Portland, Maine, died this year of being infected with the Powassan virus, a rare and incurable infection. This virus enters through flea bites. What exactly is this virus?

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Weymouth is the third death toll from this virus since 2015 in Maine. But it is the first death this year. He developed neurological symptoms and died in hospital.

His wife, Annemarie Weymouth, is now warning others to protect themselves from the disease. “He was there, but he couldn’t move his body. He could point to words on the blackboard. He pointed to ‘scared’, ‘scared’, ‘frustrated’,” said Weymouth as reported by the page. Health DayWednesday (31/5/2023).

The CDC received 189 infection reports Powassan between 2012 and 2021. Most cases virus Powassan in the US it occurs in the Northeast and Great Lakes region. Maine has had four cases in the last year.

Although box is an arachnid like a spider, the virus is not much different from several viruses that are vectored by mosquitoes, such as dengue fever and Zika. “Other than tick transmission, Powassan virus doesn’t form or form anything like Lyme disease,” said Dr. Eugene Shapiro, a professor of pediatrics and epidemiology at Yale School of Medicine.

Shapiro said the Powassan virus is closely related to something called encephalitis tick-borne, which is a virus primarily seen in Middle Eastern Europe and Eurasia. The Powassan virus affects only a very small number of people each year. But there may be many others who are asymptomatic or have mild or flu-like symptoms and go undiagnosed.

The virus got its name from its discovery in a 5-year-old boy who died of it in the late 1950s in Powassan, Ontario, Canada. “Experts suspect the disease is transmitted primarily by ticks groundhog, which do not normally eat humans. Instead, it mostly eats skunks, groundhogs and squirrels,” said Shapiro.

At some point, it moved to deer ticks, and those are the ticks that bite humans. There are still many mysteries to be unraveled regarding the Powassan virus. For example, although some studies show that as many as 5 percent of deer ticks in some areas of Connecticut are positive for the virus, it does not show up in the high Powassan human infection numbers.

“But cases are increasing, according to CDC figures,” said Dr. Nicole Baumgarth, an immunologist at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health.

But it’s unclear whether there are actually more people who are infected or whether doctors are testing them more often. “There’s no treatment, other than some kind of general support from someone who has the disease,” says Baumgarth.

The most serious illness associated with Powassan is encephalitis, but not everyone who is infected with this virus will develop this very severe case. According to Yale Medicine, other symptoms can include fever, chills, fatigue, rash on the torso, muscle weakness, nausea, vomiting, dizziness and neck stiffness. However, the vast majority of those infected are likely to have no symptoms or mild symptoms and go undiagnosed.

“For those who have symptoms severe enough to be diagnosed, usually with encephalitis, the death rate is between 10 percent and 30 percent,” said Shapiro.