A bacterial illness earned by the deer ticks that also transmit Lyme, HGE (human granulocytic ehrlichiosis) was first identified in Minnesota in 1991. But it’s new enough that most doctors don’t even look for it. So far, 60 cases have been confirmed nationwide, primarily in the Northeast and upper Midwest, and there could be many more. Four patients have died, but experts are divided over whether HGE is truly lethal–or whether underlying medical problems contributed to the fatalities.
“Diagnosis is difficult,” says epidemiologist Dr. Michael Osterholm of the Minnesota State Department of Health. “Testing has not been standardized.” Often the physician makes an empirical diagnosis, says Dr. Gary Wormser, chief of infectious diseases at the Westchester County Medical Center. If it’s summer and a patient develops sudden flulike symptoms, without coughing or nasal congestion, HGE is a likely suspect– especially if the patient remembers a recent tick bite. (Lyme symptoms usually come on more gradually.)
The diagnosis can be confirmed by sending a blood sample to one of very few properly equipped labs. But that takes a week, and Wormser begins a 14-day course of tetracycline or doxycycline right away. (Other antibiotics don’t seem to help HGE.) Unlike Lyme disease, which can cause neurological damage and arthritis that last for years, HGE usually clears up quickly and completely. To be on the safe side, experts advise wearing long sleeves and long pants tucked into socks when ticks are around. But they admit they don’t know nearly enough yet about the latest medical invader to venture out of the woods.
