{"id":336609,"date":"2026-09-03T03:34:20","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T03:34:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/336609\/"},"modified":"2026-09-03T03:34:20","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T03:34:20","slug":"ny-health-commissioner-warns-long-islanders-that-ticks-are-winning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/336609\/","title":{"rendered":"NY health commissioner warns Long Islanders that &#8216;ticks are winning&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As tick season carries into the fall, state health commissioner Dr. James McDonald is warning Long Islanders of the severity of the issue.<\/p>\n<p>In 2024, Suffolk County led the state in Lyme disease cases by over 3,000, according to health department data. Now, cases outside New York City have reached approximately 22,000.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe ticks are winning. There are a lot more ticks than us. We are their food source, and I think we really are in a time where we have to think differently about ticks,\u201d McDonald said at a news conference Tuesday at <a href=\"https:\/\/southampton.stonybrookmedicine.edu\/services\/tick-borne-disease-resource-center\" class=\"Link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Stony Brook Southampton Hospital\u2019s Regional Tick-Borne Disease Resource Center and Clinic<\/a>. \u201cThey&#8217;re no longer just a nuisance, but ticks really are a rising threat.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.health.ny.gov\/publications\/2813\/\" class=\"Link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Lyme disease<\/a> is a bacterial infection that can, in extreme cases, cause arthritis, neck stiffness, facial palsy, and swelling of the brain and spinal cord.<\/p>\n<p>Children aged five to nine have the highest and most consistent rate of Lyme disease of any age group, according to the<a href=\"https:\/\/wwwnc.cdc.gov\/eid\/article\/30\/10\/24-0191_article\" class=\"Link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"> Centers for Disease Control<\/a>. Ticks generally have closer access to them due to their close proximity to the ground and prolonged time spent outdoors.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs our children head back to the classroom and summer winds down, it is a dangerous misconception that the tick risks disappear,\u201d said Dr. Andrew Handel, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Stony Brook Children&#8217;s Hospital.<\/p>\n<p>Aside from Lyme disease, alpha-gal and other tick-borne allergies are also a cause for concern, according to doctors.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe other thing to think about is we really do see the rise of a different type of disease from ticks, which is the rise of alpha-gal,\u201d McDonald said. \u201cIt&#8217;s transmitted from the Lone Star tick, often through saliva. But it really is an allergy to red meat, and this tick-borne allergy is a concern.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>McDonald advised personal vigilance to protect against the rise in tick-borne diseases. This includes checking people and pets from head to toe for ticks, and applying insect repellent to the skin and to clothing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou know my message is not to be afraid of the outdoors, but to be prepared for the outdoors,\u201d he said. \u201cSo that&#8217;s why we use insect repellent. That&#8217;s why we dress appropriately.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As tick season carries into the fall, state health commissioner Dr. James McDonald is warning Long Islanders of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":336610,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[9,11,10,49,51,50],"class_list":["post-336609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-state","tag-new-york-state-headlines","tag-new-york-state-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=336609"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336609\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/336610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=336609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=336609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=336609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}