Overall Number and Severity Are on the Rise.

• Position: TICK-BORNE DISEASES

When Ram Raghavan heard from a former colleague at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that a seven-year-old girl had died from Rocky Mountain spotted fever as the result of a tick bite, he thought of his own daughter, also seven years old at the time, and the potentially fatal danger posed to vulnerable populations by tick-borne diseases.

Now a professor at the University of Missouri College of Veterinary Medicine and School of Health Professions, Raghavan is an epidemiologist studying how ticks, mosquitoes, and other arthropods spread disease that impacts people, pets, and livestock over time in various geographical regions.

Raghavan notes that several factors have contributed to the rise in tick-borne diseases. Humans increasingly are relocating from densely populated urban cities to more suburban areas on the outskirts of towns near forests and grasslands where ticks often are present. Outdoor fitness activities, such as hiking, biking, and walking, also have become more popular, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic and particularly during the wanner spring and summer seasons.

Climate change has played a role as well, as the warmer temperatures and humidity seem to be creating perfect conditions for ticks and...