Tick-Borne Diseases

When people think of ticks, Lyme disease usually comes to mind first. But ticks can spread several illnesses.

Here we give an overview of some common tick-borne diseases in the United States.

For each disease, we’ll cover how you get it, where it’s common, what symptoms to watch for, and how it’s diagnosed and treated.

Don’t worry – we’ll keep the language simple and clear (science doesn’t have to be scary!).

If we use any big medical words, we’ll explain them. Our goal is to help you understand these diseases so you can protect yourself and help others do the same.

Anaplasmosis

Bacterial illness causing flu-like symptoms, best treated early with doxycycline.

Babesiosis

Babesiosis is a malaria-like tick-borne disease that destroys red blood cells.

Human Monocytic Ehrlichiosis (HME)

Bacterial infection that targets monocytes and is treated with doxycycline.

Lyme Disease

Bacterial infection marked by flu-like symptoms and a bull’s-eye rash, treatable with antibiotics.

Powassan Virus Disease

Rare but dangerous tick-borne virus that can cause brain inflammation and long-term damage.

Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever (RMSF)

Life-threatening bacterial illness marked by fever and rash, needing urgent doxycycline treatment.

(Psst: you’ll see the names of ticks like the “blacklegged tick” or “Lone Star tick” mentioned below – you can learn more about those little critters on our Tick Species page!)

Other Tick-Borne Diseases

The above are the main ones we focus on because they are relatively more common or well-known in the U.S. There are a few other tick-borne diseases worth a quick mention:

For brevity, we won’t dive deep into those, but it’s good to be aware that ticks carry many nasty things. The best defense is always tick bite prevention and prompt removal (more on that in our Prevention section).