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Show W0"d?hyc5LNort R'm Stricken With Relaosina Fever hi. , ( .111 t'pKll'l'1'' l'l Ivl' ' ',!,,; l-'t'St'f iHl'lll Tt'd ' people wi'i Kiiil; at t UHll -l l.tIUlJ 111 " .(tutis .11 the North '.,1 l,u ilr.tiul I'.iu- ..noiiif! F'er i an Y U'II1U' illness ' U'l l. 'fvt puma i lU j,.;fi tVer, headache, ' 0', muscle pains aiul "'.Nli.ltU'H It Is iMUsod 'i lu'niiNt. Small ro -'I''"'- .mo Kio rescnoir i'i the oinaniMii at the i.i.ind I'anu.ii, ami (ho sU lick. Orniihodorus hoi him is tho vector. The tnouti.uu.il period is :! to l- d.is .uul tho illness is usually self-limited aiul clur.u UM ied liy at loast oiio relapse of sNiiipiuins. lolt.iocliue is effective li oaimoni. At tho Not Ih Kim of the Graiul Canyon, (horo MlM l' 37 oasos of tho I'e-vi'i- in employees of (ho Graiul CaiiNon aiul l!.r cases ca-ses in tourists visiting the I'anvon. Tho first oaso occurred on May L'S. ''ho poah of iho cpidoinic ooourroil oo-ourroil (luring tin' works of Jul.v 9 ami July Hi. Tho niitbioak was oyor by miil-Auust, (ho last oaso ooourriiiK on August Aug-ust J5. Ono of tho iliannoso s was confirmed in a I Hall hospital by the identification identifi-cation of (he hori elia her-msi her-msi in the patient's peripheral pe-ripheral blood smear. In addition, three other Utah Ut-ah residents were suspected sus-pected of having the illness ill-ness but were not confirmed con-firmed cases. The borrclia hertnsi spirochete's natural reservoir re-servoir includes the small rodents which inha-! inha-! bit the North Him area and live in burrows underneath un-derneath woodpiles and underneath the cabins. At the peak of the epidemic, epidem-ic, ticks were identified J in a woodpile adjacent to the naranc in which the head park rann e r ' s daughter, a confirmed case, was sleeping. A . survey of the local ro-;. ro-;. dents demonstrated a ve-- ve-- ry low rodent population populat-ion in July. A review of the recent ' ecological data from the v (irand Canyon sunests a hypothesis as to why , this .epidemic occurred in summer, I'l7:t and not some oilier year. Snow fall in Ihe (irand Canyon Can-yon in Ihe winter of 11)72-7!1 11)72-7!1 was the highest in many years. There were 2!t.(i inches of water (in Ihe form of snow) on the e.round at North Him on April 1, l'J7:i, more than (wire that recroded in any previous year. The water runoff in April and May was the highest since 11)11. The hypothesis is that the hijh water year either drowned the ro -dents, forced them out of the area, or upset their mating and reproduction cycle. This explains the low population in July. As a result, the tick had to seek an alternative blood meal. It moved into in-to the cracks in the cabins ca-bins and feasted on unsuspecting un-suspecting park employees employ-ees and tourists sleeping sleep-ing in the cabins. An August Aug-ust survey of the rodent population showed that it had returned to normal. Coincidentally , the area was sprayed and the epidemic epi-demic terminated. |