天气转暖意味着是时候警惕蜱虫了

As warm weather sends people outdoors, some are encountering tenacious pests.

随着温暖的天气让人们到户外去，一些人遇到了顽强的害虫。

Forget staying 6 feet apart: Ticks go for blood in the hardest-to-reach places on the human body.

忘了保持6英尺的距离：蜱虫会去人身上最难够到的地方吸血。

Many of those ticks are infected with Lyme disease. The illness, which was first identified in Connecticut in the 1970s, is found in countries across the Northern Hemisphere. It's the most common tick-borne disease in both the United States and Europe.

很多蜱虫都感染了莱姆病。这种疾病于20世纪70年代在康涅狄格州首次被发现，在北半球的国家都有发现。它是美国和欧洲最常见的蜱传疾病。

And the area where Lyme disease is found is expanding.

发现莱姆病的区域正在扩大。

Lyme disease is on the rise in the United Kingdom, and climate change is projected to worsen the spread of Lyme across northern Europe.

莱姆病在英国呈上升趋势，气候变化预计会加剧莱姆病在北欧的蔓延。

According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there's now a high incidence of exposure in Midwestern, Northeastern and mid-Atlantic states.

根据美国疾病控制和预防中心的数据，现在中西部、东北部和大西洋中部各州的爆发率很高。

And while it's still too soon to say how bad ticks will be this year, some indicators point to a population surge in the early part of the season in the United States. Reported sightings of ticks via the University of Rhode Island's survey were up 80% in March over last year.

虽然现在说蜱虫今年会有多厉害还为时过早，但一些指标显示，美国的蜱虫数量在季节的早期会激增。根据罗德岛大学的调查，三月份报告的蜱虫目击报告比去年增加了80%。

The tick population is likely to fluctuate throughout the season anyway, said Mather, who is a professor in the department of plant sciences and entomology at the University of Rhode Island. "What we see in real time isn't always a good prognosticator for what could be happening a month or two months from now."

马瑟是罗得岛大学植物科学与昆虫学系的教授，他说，蜱虫的数量可能会在整个季节上下波动。“我们实时看到的情况并不总是能够很好地预测一两个月后可能发生的情况。”

By April and May, reports were closer to what Mather saw in 2019. But even if tick numbers hold steady for the rest of the warm-weather months, encounters with the tiny arachnids will remain a serious issue.

到4月和5月，报告更接近马瑟在2019年看到的情况。但是，即使蜱虫的数量在温暖天气剩下的几个月里保持稳定，遇到这种微小的蛛形纲动物仍然是一个严重的问题。

Not only can ticks carry Lyme disease, they may bring other illnesses as well. When left untreated, some of these can be deadly for both humans and pets.

蜱虫不仅会携带莱姆病，还会带来其他疾病。如果不及时治疗，其中一些对人类和宠物都是致命的。

And as sunny days send people outside to breath fresh air amid the pandemic, the risk of contracting a tick-borne disease or infection goes up wherever ticks can be found.

随着人们在大流行期间在阳光明媚的日子里到户外呼吸新鲜空气，凡发现蜱虫的地方，感染蜱虫传播疾病或感染的风险就会上升。

What are the most serious tick-borne illnesses?

什么是最严重的蜱传疾病?

Worrying about the coronavirus pandemic doesn't mean other threats have gone away.

对冠状病毒大流行的担忧并不意味着其他威胁已经消失。

"There are numerous tick-borne pathogens that are on the rise," said Allison Gardner, a medical entomologist and assistant professor of arthropod vector biology at the University of Maine.

缅因州大学医学昆虫学家、节肢动物病媒生物学助理教授艾莉森·加德纳说，“由蜱传播的病原体数量正在增加。”

Gardner noted that the United States contends with the parasitic infection babesiosis; it's also found in Europe.

加德纳指出，美国与巴贝斯虫病的寄生虫感染作斗争;它也在欧洲被发现。

The bacterial disease anaplasmosis is a major issue in the United States as well, and has become a more serious threat in the last two decades. More than 6,000 cases were reported to the CDC in 2018, up from 348 cases in 2000, when data for the disease were first collected.

细菌性疾病无形体病在美国也是一个主要问题，在过去二十年已成为一个更严重的威胁。2018年，美国疾病控制与预防中心报告了6000多例病例，高于2000年首次收集疾病数据时的348例。

As with Lyme disease, early symptoms of anaplasmosis include fevers, chills, headaches and muscle aches. Antibiotics are effective against anaplasmosis, but if left untreated, the disease can be fatal. Those with compromised immune systems are at especially high risk.

与莱姆病一样，无形体病的早期症状包括发烧、寒战、头痛和肌肉疼痛。抗生素对无形体病是有效的，但如果不治疗，这种疾病可能是致命的。那些免疫系统受损的人风险尤其高。

In Europe, the viral tick-borne encephalitis is a problem, with 3,092 confirmed cases in European Union countries in 2018. There is an effective vaccine against the disease, which can cause fevers, headaches, paralysis and convulsions. (Other tick borne-diseases in Europe include tick-borne relapsing fever, Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever and Mediterranean spotted fever.)

在欧洲，病毒性蜱传脑炎是一个问题，2018年在欧盟国家有3092例确诊病例。有一种有效的疫苗可以对抗这种疾病，这种疾病会导致发烧、头痛、瘫痪和抽搐。(欧洲的其他蜱传疾病包括蜱传回归热、克里米亚-刚果出血热和地中海斑疹热。)

The most common tick-borne danger in both the United States and Europe, however, is still from Lyme disease. And the vast majority of cases may go undetected.

然而，在美国和欧洲，由蜱传播的最常见的危险仍然来自莱姆病。而且绝大多数病例可能不会被发现。