Thursday, Oct. 12, 2000 | 10:14 a.m.
A trio of federal scientists arrived in Las Vegas on Wednesday to investigate how a rare, tick-borne disease infected three Mount Charleston residents.
The experts from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta will examine medical records, interview doctors and visit Mount Charleston, searching for clues on how relapsing fever, a sometimes fatal disease, infected the people.
Nevada and Clark County public health officials invited the CDC team to help piece together the first cases of the fever confirmed in Southern Nevada in 16 years. Since 1992 three cases have been reported in Northern Nevada. No one has died.
The Clark County Health District issued a warning last week to take precautions against tick and flea bites. Both the fever and a virus that causes bubonic plague have been identified in large animals in the area.
Relapsing fever and the plague are treatable if diagnosed early. However, the fever poses a particular risk to pregnant women bitten by the tick known as Ornithodoros, which feeds on mice, squirrels and chipmunks.
The threat posed by such diseases is small, health district epidemiologist Rose Bell said Wednesday. "This does not mean that there is going to be an outbreak or an epidemic," Bell said.
A 51-year-old man was misdiagnosed with Lyme disease in August after camping in Lee Canyon for a month in a tent. CDC confirmed he had the relapsing fever.
The CDC experts have the knowledge and training to track rodents and insects in an effort to find the route that the diseases take in higher animals, Bell said.
"I've never dealt with this before," Bell said of the relapsing fever cases, which developed later in the summer season than usual.
The ticks that carry the fever tend to bite at night, so a person could be injected with the fever's bacteria and never notice it until chills and a high temperature strikes, she said.
The most recent case of relapsing fever occurred in Washington state. An infant died seven days after birth. The mother had transmitted the disease to the unborn baby.
Symptoms may begin three to 11 days after a bite, last more than a week, lessen and then the cycle repeats itself.
In addition, four gray foxes and a coyote trapped in Lee and Kyle canyons this summer carried the plague, but no cases have been reported in humans.
The CDC will examine buildings and other places where rodents, and subsequently fleas, flourish, then try to advise people how to avoid infected animals and insects.
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