Many people confuse tickborne encephalitis with lyme disease. While both are risks to the health of thousands of people, the two types of disease do differ from one another. To understand the difference between tickborne encephalitis and lyme disease, it’s important to first understand what each disease is.

Tickborne encephalitis (TBE) is a type of disease that is transmitted to humans through the bite of a tick or mosquito, according to Columbia University Irving Medical Center. While ticks on their own don’t cause the disease, they do carry it. TBE is a type of viral infection that can affect a person’s spinal cord and brain, which is why there is growing concern around the disease. This means that those infected with TBE can suffer from permanent brain damage, mental impairment or paralysis.

Symptoms of TBE often don’t show, but if a person does experience symptoms, they will typically come in two phases. The first phase includes fever, muscle pain, fatigue, and other flu-like symptoms. The second phase consists of meningitis, myelitis or encephalitis.

While both TBE and lyme disease are transmitted to humans through ticks and can have long-term effects, unlike TBE, lyme disease is not a virus. Instead, lyme disease is a bacterial infection. Ticks that cause lyme disease also need to be attached to a human for about 36 to 48 hours to transmit the disease.

Both diseases are similar in how they are transmitted and that they can have serious effects, but they do have differences. Unlike TBE, lyme disease usually does come with symptoms that are easy to pinpoint, such as a red “bullseye” rash. This rash often has a clear center. While this symptom doesn’t necessarily occur in everyone who contracts lyme disease, it is a well-known symptom of the bacterial infection.

Another difference is that as a viral infection, there isn’t a specific treatment method for TBE. But unlike TBE, as a bacterial infection, lyme disease can use antibiotics for treatment.

If you’re planning on traveling to an area that’s known to have lots of ticks, there are preventative measures you can take to help stay safe. If you haven’t already, consider getting the vaccine for TBE. This will protect you against TBE. There is no vaccine against lyme disease for humans.

But, you can still protect yourself against ticks, which will reduce your chances of getting Lyme disease. You can do this by using insect repellent, wearing clothing, such as socks, that contain insecticide, and by wearing protective clothing that covers your skin, such as long sleeve shirts, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.

While most ticks aren’t infected with TBE, it’s always better to be safe than sorry, especially when you’re traveling out-of-country.

Passport Health offers repellents, tick-borne encephalitis vaccines and more to help you travel safely. Call or book online to schedule your appointment today.

Written for Passport Health by Elle Johnson. Elle is a freelance journalist and social media content creator in Florida. Not only does she enjoy working as a freelancer, but in her free time she enjoys working on fictional stories.

Meningococcal disease, more widely known as meningitis, inflames the meninges – which are three membranes that cover the brain stem and spinal cord. Once the meninges become infected, that is when meningitis happens. It affects mainly infants, young adults, and teenagers at risk of being infected with meningitis.

Through close contact, it spreads from person to person, such as kissing or sharing the same drink out of a cup. It is spread through saliva and can also be caught if you are close to someone who has it and coughs. It will tend to spread quickly within a community setting, dorm rooms, for example, or if you share a home with roommates.

There are five different types of meningitis; viral, bacterial, fungal, parasitic, and non-infectious meningitis. But the most common of them are viral and bacterial. Bacterial meningitis is considered very dangerous, as it can strike and kill a patient within hours of the onset of symptoms. Those who recover from meningitis may have permanent disabilities, including hearing loss, learning disabilities, and brain damage.

Meningitis can kill you if not caught and treated within time. Around 5 to 45 percent of children who contract the infection will die from bacterial meningitis. 20 to 50 percent of adults will die. That is even with the proper treatment. It can be a very deadly disease if not caught in time. It is essential to look out for the signs and symptoms of meningitis. They can include:

• Headache
• Stiff neck
• Fever
• Nausea
• Confusion
• Vomiting
• Trouble staying awake

Symptoms to look out for in children include:

• Being cranky or irritable
• They might move slower than usual
• Vomit
• Have poor reflexes.

If you or your child has any of the above symptoms, you must get seen by a medical professional right away.

Patients are typically given a combination of an antibiotic and sometimes a corticosteroid to be delivered intravenously. There are ways to protect yourself from meningitis, and the best line of defense is to get vaccinated if you have not already been.

It is imperative to get your children vaccinated, especially since they are often in a community setting at school. The first vaccine, MenACWY, should be given to children between 11 and 12 years old, and they should also get a booster of it between the age of 16. Children between the ages of 16 through 23 may get a MenB vaccine.

At Passport Health, we carry the A, C, W, Y, and B vaccinations. They are available at any of our clinics. Call or book online to schedule your appointment today.

Jennifer Passmore is a stay-at-home mom, writer and beader. She loves creating art with her words and through her jewelry. She is also a passionate mental health advocate. You can find more writing at her website Positivity In Pain.

Rapid tests have been used for years to help detect malaria, which have been a key factor in preventing a high prevalence of the disease in many areas. But after 15 years of use, many malaria parasites are learning to hide from these rapid tests.

These stealthy malaria parasites have evolved over the years to go undetected when an individual uses a rapid test. This poses a huge threat to areas with high malaria prevalence, like many countries in Africa.

“This is a major threat to malaria control,” Jane Cunningham, with the World Health Organization (WHO) Global Malaria Programme in Geneva, told New Scientist.

Many countries in Africa rely on rapid tests when it comes to treating patients. If the rapid test comes back negative, a patient won’t be treated. This could lead to increased cases of malaria in Africa if a patient has an evolved version of the disease and their test comes back negative.

The malaria parasites that have evolved to hide from the rapid tests were first noticed in 2016 when children in Eritrea were showing signs and symptoms of being sick with malaria. However, when tested, their rapid tests came back negative. When Cunningham and her team looked into the malaria parasites, they found that 80% were mutated in Eritrea.

This meant that the parasites weren’t making pfhrp2 and pfhrp3, two proteins that the rapid test detects when testing for malaria.

“It was a crisis situation. They thought there was something wrong with the test,” she told New Scientist.

“Continued use of these rapid tests is selecting for [parasites without the two marker proteins] to proliferate,” Cunningham said.

The rapid test that detects the two proteins previously provided consistent results, which made it a popular choice among many African countries, according to Ars Technica. The drugs used when a test comes back positive are used to kill the malaria parasites.

“As such, they provide a selective pressure that can drive evolution,” Ars Technica said. “That selection can potentially produce resistance to the drug. But it can provide selection against the proteins that caused it to be present in the first place – the ones recognized by the rapid test.”

African areas that see a prevalence of the mutated malaria parasites are now switching to a different rapid test. However, they have not proved as reliable in detecting the disease.

Many viruses evolve over time to resist specific treatments; however, it’s not often seen that they evolve to hide from rapid tests. With the new knowledge that malaria can mutate to hide from these tests, other viruses, such as COVID-19, could also start to hide from rapid tests.

Passport Health provides antimalarials, repellents and more for international travelers going to regions with malaria. Call or book online to schedule your appointment today.

Written for Passport Health by Elle Johnson. Elle is a freelance journalist and social media content creator in Florida. Not only does she enjoy working as a freelancer, but in her free time she enjoys working on fictional stories.

Is the coronavirus dying out? As the COVID-19 pandemic seems to get milder, it’s only natural to wonder what is happening with the virus itself. Many viruses follow a pattern of infection and mutation. Epidemiologists and virologists have found that the coronavirus is following this same pattern. Based on what these scientists have found, it’s still difficult to know whether or not the coronavirus is dying out. How exactly can we know whether or not a virus is dying out?

No More Hosts

As long as there are susceptible hosts for a virus, it will continue to live and spread. A virus cannot die out if there are still people that it can infect. This means that if there are enough people without immunity, a virus will continue to spread. Once the majority of a community has developed immunity, a virus will struggle to find hosts and will eventually die out. This happened with the Spanish Flu in 1920. The flu had infected so many people worldwide that eventually the virus had no one else left to infect. The majority of people had already developed immunity against the virus and those that hadn’t were unfortunately already dead.

No Way to Spread

With enough susceptible hosts, a virus also needs a way to spread for it to continue living. In short, depending on how a virus spreads, susceptible hosts need to be in close enough contact for the virus to continue living. For example, the coronavirus spreads through airborne droplets. This means that the coronavirus will continue to live if susceptible hosts share infected airborne droplets among each other. This often happens when individuals without immunity exchange saliva through unmasked close interaction.

Signs a Virus is Dying Out

Signs a virus is dying out or will soon die out can often be found in the community. If most or all individuals are immunized, then it’s very likely that the virus will eventually die out. Also, if there is no way for the virus to continue spreading between individuals that aren’t immunized, it’s only a short time before the virus disappears. Viruses, however, continue to mutate in order to survive, so it’s important that immunity against these new variants of the virus is maintained through vaccination.

As a virus nears the end of its life course, the medical community will often notice a decrease in rates of infection. These rates will eventually reach a stasis and the curve that graphically shows the amount of infection in the community will flatten. It might still be a bit too early to know whether this is happening with the coronavirus. There continue to emerge new variants and while these variants are weaker, they’re still very infectious. In order to eventually see the death of the coronavirus, each of us must do our part by getting vaccinated. By getting vaccinated, we achieve immunity against the coronavirus and help to stop its spread.

Passport Health offers a variety of COVID-19 testing and vaccination options. Call or book online to schedule your appointment today.

Ese Agboh is a student nurse who wants to specialize in pediatric nursing and wound care. In her free time, she enjoys reading and writing articles related to medicine and the pathophysiology of communicable diseases. Ese currently lives and studies on the east coast of the United States.

Scuba diving can be quite an enjoyable and fun activity when you are on vacation. It can be very exciting to see the different kinds of marine wildlife that are in that area. Plus, scuba diving offers so many great opportunities to learn about different species of fish, coral, and other sea life. Not to mention that it can be incredibly beautiful beneath the water, a whole incredible ecosystem of its own. But, you do want to make sure that when you are scuba diving you stay safe. Here are some tips on how to stay safe when scuba diving.

Assure That You Are Scuba-Ready

If you have never been scuba diving before, you should visit your primary care provider for a check-up. When you are there, explain to them that you are interested in scuba-diving and that you would like to make sure that your body is fit to do so. Your physician will examine you and find out just that. You should also make certain that you are up-to-date on any vaccinations you might need, including travel ones, especially if you plan to travel overseas to scuba-dive.

Get Certified

While it is certainly not illegal to dive without certification, it is a whole lot safer if you are certified. If you plan on doing any kind of diving outside of your hotel or resort, you should seek a certificate from the Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI). The best thing about PADI is that you don’t even have to live close to the ocean to get started on your training. All you need to do is find a PADI-certified training center using their website, have a free weekend or two, and pay for the course.

Once you have completed the basic courses that have been recommended for you and your skill level, you are then ready to scuba dive. Note that if you are staying at a hotel or resort that offers scuba lessons, these lessons are likely for diving less than 30 feet beneath the water’s surface, and usually not any deeper.

Always Dive With A Buddy

Diving is a sport that should be done in groups of two or three, even more, if possible. Many scuba-related injuries or deaths are related to someone going diving by themselves or moving beyond the means of their training. When you dive with other scuba-certified friends, you are giving yourself the peace of mind that there is someone else there with you, just in case anything happens.

Remember To Ascend Slowly

If you have dived into deeper waters, then it is very important that you take your time ascending back to the top of the water. If you ascend too quickly, you are putting yourself at risk for decompression sickness, also known as “the bends.” Nitrogen gases form bubbles within the blood and can cause a whole host of problems, including damage to your brains, lungs, and spinal cord.

Do Not Fly For 24 Hours After

Before you fly anywhere after taking a dive, you should plan for at least one day off after a dive. While some sources say that you should not fly for 18 hours after a dive, approximately 24 hours remains the time period that most doctors recommend. This gives your body a chance to dissipate all of the excess nitrogen that is in your system from your dive. If you aren’t feeling good after a dive, make sure that you visit a local hospital to make sure that everything is fine and to make sure you are not being affected by decompression sickness.

By following these tips and tricks, they can help you have a safer time when you scuba-dive.

Making sure you are Scuba-ready is just one part of preparing for a trip. Passport Health offers vaccinations, medications and more to help make sure you stay healthy while abroad. Call or book online to schedule your appointment today.

Jennifer Passmore is a stay-at-home mom, writer and beader. She loves creating art with her words and through her jewelry. She is also a passionate mental health advocate. You can find more writing at her website Positivity In Pain.