” . . . cases of tick-borne diseases [in the U.S.] increased more than twofold between 2004 and 2017. . . .Tick-borne diseases now make up more than three-quarters of all vector-borne disease reports.”

I live in a small town dotted with grassy and wooded areas, brush, and plenty of mammalian wildlife, so the possibility of contact with ticks is present even on a walk to the compost bin or train station.

I’ve become really good at tick identification and removal, but I can’t claim any special expertise in recognizing the early signs of tick-borne diseases.

CDC warns of tick-borne rickettsial disease increase.

For that information, we have help this month from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) staff, who steer readers to new resources in the Update from the CDC column in AJN’s July issue, “Increase in Reports of Tick-Borne Rickettsial Diseases in the United States.”

Alison Binder and Paige Armstrong tell us about the CDC’s new online training toolkit and learning module, both designed to raise awareness about tick-borne rickettsial diseases.

Lyme disease basics for nurses, and other resources.

These free continuing education resources cover the epidemiology, risk factors, signs and symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment of various tick-borne infections. The learning module even includes a rash comparison tool.

(For information on Lyme disease, which is a tick-borne disease caused by Borrelia burgdorferi and not by rickettsiae, see “Lyme Disease: Diagnosis, Treatment, and Prevention” in the April 2018 issue of AJN.)