Rare but Deadly
By Durland Fish
A perilous tick-borne illness is spreading—and it isn’t Lyme disease.
This Article From Issue
May-June 2025
Volume 113, Number 3
Page 178
Many people remember Kay Hagan as the candidate whose upset victory against North Carolina Senator Elizabeth Dole allowed the Democrats to regain control of the U.S. Senate in 2008. For me, her name will always bring to mind the more personal health battle she fought a few years later against the effects of encephalitis, an inflammation of the brain that can cause neurological complications ranging in severity from mild to life- threatening. In Hagan’s case, the condition quickly hampered her ability to control her muscles, arms, and legs, and made speaking difficult. In October 2019, she passed away unexpectedly at the age of 66—a former senator brought low by a creature the size of an apple seed: a tick carrying the Powassan virus.
QUICK TAKE
- Powassan virus is a rare but potentially deadly tick-borne disease for which there is no vaccine. Its flu-like symptoms can progress to encephalitis and long-term neurological impairments.
- Once confined to a tick species that seldom bites humans, it has since spilled over into the deer tick that spreads Lyme disease. These ticks can transmit infection during several life stages.
- Now Powassan is spreading along with its deer hosts into areas reforested over the past century. Many cases go unreported, and improved tracking is needed.
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