Mosquito-borne and tickborne disease risk rises with warmer temperatures

BISMARCK, N.D. (KFYR) - With rising temperatures comes rising risk of insect-spread disease.

In North Dakota and in areas that had flooding in Montana, university researchers say they’re seeing jumps in mosquito populations. The NDDoH reports there’s been three cases of the mosquito-borne West Nile virus in North Dakota so far this year.

Infectious disease specialists say they also expect to see rises of tickborne ailments heading into August. North Dakota Tick Surveillance has collected 508 ticks so far in 2022.

“Treating infection early on is fairly easy, treating infection if it gets a bit more advanced gets to be more complicated. So, ideally prevention is the way to go. Tick-check if you are outdoors... Lyme disease is only transmitted if the tick has been on you for about 24 hours, at least 24 hours, so you have that time frame within 24 hours to go ahead and try to remove everything that’s on your skin,” said Dr. Noe Mateo, infectious disease specialist with Sanford Health.

Dr. Noe Mateo says you can’t always see if there’s a tick on you, so if you begin to show symptoms of illness it’s best to check with your doctor. You can submit tick pictures to the NDDoH Tick Surveillance to be identified.

Insect repellant can also help prevent ticks and mosquitos from biting you in the first place.

Lyme disease and West Nile virus are the top tickborne and mosquito-borne diseases in North Dakota respectively. Both insects also spread other bacterial and viral infections.