Dogs Are Spreading Deadly Tick-Borne Illnesses

Mexicans are being infected by a potentially deadly, tick-borne disease that they are catching from their own dogs.

Rocky Mountain spotted fever is a bacterial disease spread by ticks that usually prey on dogs, but can also feed on humans by transferring from host to host. 

The ticks that are known to spread it are the American dog tick, Rocky mountain dog tick, and in Mexico, the brown dog tick, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

According to a Washington Post report, the prevalence of the disease has reached epidemic levels in parts of Mexico, and state data from Baja California shows that the amount of cases in 2022 more than doubled from the previous year. 

Symptoms of Rocky Mountain spotted fever include fever, bleeding, headaches, rash, vomiting and nausea, stomach pain, muscle pain, and a lack of appetite. 

The disease can quickly become lethal if left untreated. Four in 10 people who didn’t receive treatment died from the disease, Oscar Efrén Zazueta, MD, an epidemiologist in Baja California, told the Post. Children under 10 are at a higher risk because of their increased contact with dogs that may spread the ticks, and the early symptoms of the disease can be confused with many other types of early childhood illnesses until it’s too severe to be treated with antibiotics. 

Warmer weather caused by the climate crisis is likely contributing to the increase in cases, Ben Beard, PhD, deputy director of the division of vector-borne diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told the Post. 

“They begin biting people earlier in the year and stay out longer,” he said. “More people are being exposed potentially to the bites of infected ticks and, as a result, more cases of tick-borne diseases.”

Attempts to wrangle the epidemic have focused on dogs in the area, which can pick up the ticks if left to roam freely, as many in the area do. Epidemiologists have encouraged regular tick checks, and have gone house to house to check for the pests in dogs and in the structure of the houses, where ticks often breed. 

Tick collars are often too expensive for inhabitants of the area to procure and even if a family doesn’t own any pets themselves, children still come into contact with free-roaming dogs, making the ticks difficult to avoid. 

Daniela Villanueva León told the Post about how she lost her five-year old son, Axel, to the disease. They had never owned any dogs, nevertheless, it’s possible that Axel came into contact with the disease by way of the dogs that frequented the street where he liked to play soccer. He died after three nights in the hospital.

León said “you see [ticks] everywhere,” and with another child on the way, she worries about protecting her family from the disease.