Lyme vaccine being worked on, but doctors warn of other tick-borne diseases

These bugs are so small, we often don’t see them. And what some of them are carrying can be deadly.

More and more people are getting Lyme disease, but doctors like Kris Paolino at Upstate Medical University warn that there are other tick-borne infections people should worry about.

“The big one is anaplasmosis,” Dr. Paolino said.

Anaplasmosis mimics the flu and if it isn’t caught early and treated with antibiotics.

“It’s a fatal illness people can get sick and die,” Paolino said.

Paolino says there are five cases of anaplasmosis already reported in Binghamton this year and that’s just one of the infections people should be worrying about.

“Powassan gets a lot of press because it generally has a high fatality rate and people who do survive it oftentimes have a neurological compromise,” Paolino said.