Health Highlights: Aug. 7, 2018

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Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by the editors of HealthDay:

New Tick Species Spreading in U.S.

The first new tick species to appear in the United States in 50 years is spreading rapidly in the East and has been confirmed in seven states and the suburbs of New York City.

In it’s home range, the Asian long-horned tick carries a virus that kills 15 percent of its victims, but it is considered a greater threat to livestock than to humans, The New York Times reported Monday.

U.S. public health experts say they are concerned, but not alarmed, by the presence of the long-horned tick, which is known in Australia as the bush tick and in New Zealand as the cattle tick.

The ticks can reproduce rapidly and suck so much blood from a young animal that it dies, the Times reported.

In the United States, the first long-horned tick was found last summer in western New Jersey. Since then, they’ve been found in Bergen, Essex and Middlesex counties in that state, in New York’s Westchester County, and in Pennsylvania, Arkansas, North Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia.

The ticks were found feeding on horses, dogs, deer, a calf, a sheep and an opossum. They do feed on humans, but experts say you can protect yourself by following the same measures to guard against domestic ticks, such as using repellents and checking for ticks after walking through woods or tall grass, the newspaper reported.

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E-Cigarette Sales in U.S. Climb as Prices Fall

There was a large increase in sales of electronic cigarettes and related products in the United States in recent years as their prices fell, a federal government study says.

It found that average monthly sales of such products rose 132 percent from 2012 to 2017, NBC News reported.

During the same period, “average monthly prices significantly decreased in 39 states for rechargeables, in 31 states for disposables, in 20 states for pre-filled cartridges, and in eight states for e-liquids,” according to the study published in the journal Preventing Chronic Disease.

“Overall, U.S. e-cigarette unit sales generally increased as product prices decreased,” wrote the team at the Office on Smoking and Health, part of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In related news, U.S. Food and Drug Administration officials said that the agency is preparing a new product standard for e-cigarettes, NBC News reported.

The FDA has a number of concerns about e-cigarettes, including harmful chemicals they might contain and the risk they could get young people addicted to nicotine.

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