Insect-borne diseases have tripled in the United States since 2004, and Minnesota has emerged as an epicenter of tick-related illnesses.
With 26,886 confirmed cases of tick-borne infections between 2004 and 2016, Minnesota had the seventh-highest tally in the U.S., according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Federal officials said the findings, released in a new report Tuesday, should encourage more public health efforts to confront a growing problem — one that is at least tied to warm weather and humid streaks if not global climate change. A recent national survey found 84 percent of mosquito control agencies lacking resources for adequate monitoring.
Increased international migration of people and animals has increased threats in the U.S., which since 2004 has encountered at least nine new insect-borne germs such as chikungunya and Zika virus, according to the CDC report. Those two viruses have not been transmitted locally in Minnesota, but people traveling out of the state have been infected.
"All these diseases are basically a plane flight away," said Dr. Lyle Petersen, director of the CDC's vector-borne disease division.
Dr. Jennifer Halverson, an emergency department pediatrician in Minneapolis, contracted chikungunya in 2014 while providing charitable care to earthquake survivors in Haiti.
Severe joint symptoms lasted four months for her, but continue today for friends.
"They say they feel like they are 10 years older than they are," she said.