An outbreak of tick-bite-associated illness among military personnel subsequent to a field training

摘要

In late August 1993 several US Air Force security police personnel at a base in Arizona developed similar vague signs and symptoms of systemic illness. Forty-four members of weir unit had recendy returned from a 2-week (August 11 to 23) training exercise at Little Rock Air Force Base (AFB), Arkansas that had involved personnel from 4 other AFB (in Alabama, New Mexico, Texas, and Washington). During the first 8 days of the exercise (August 11 to 18), individuals from Arizona lived and attended, classes in wooden barracks in an area surrounded by tall grass, weeds, and perennial busnes. The last 5 days of the exercise (August 19 to 23), they lived and trained in the field, in an ecologic transition area consisting of a mosaic of grass and tall (40 to55 cm) brush kndwn to support large populations of ticks.