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The Rhode Island Department of Health announced that a 70-year-old Providence County resident had been diagnosed with the virus, with a second case was also confirmed in a Maine resident.
Other cases were also previously reported in Connecticut, when two people between the ages of 50 and 79 contracted the virus, representing the first cases of the year.
With the weather warming up, officials are cautioning that there will be an uptick in tick-related illnesses, including Powassan, Lyme disease, and others.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), “although still rare, the number of reported cases of people sick from Powassan virus has increased in recent years.”
Symptoms of Powassan include fever, headache, vomiting, and overall weakness.
The disease can also advance to meningoencephalitis, health officials caution, which can include altered mental states, seizures, difficulty understanding or speaking, muscular weakness, paralysis, and movement disorders.
Bad cases of Powassan could require hospitalization, and it can only be treated by a doctor using antibiotics, there is no vaccine to prevent the virus.
Most cases in the US occur in the northeast and Great Lakes regions from late spring through mid-fall when ticks are most active. There are no vaccines to prevent or medicines to treat Powassan virus disease.
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