Megan Lim
Appearances
Short Wave
Stopping A Deadly Disease On Apache Lands
Yeah, people called it the Black Measles then, and it was very deadly. Four out of five people who caught it died.
Short Wave
Stopping A Deadly Disease On Apache Lands
Yeah, classics, body rash. And in the early 1900s, a young doctor named Howard Ricketts discovered it was spread by ticks. But by the way, this has nothing to do with the medical condition called Ricketts, which is a bone disease related to not enough nutrition.
Short Wave
Stopping A Deadly Disease On Apache Lands
It's pretty brutal. The bacteria targets the lining of your blood vessels, what's called the endothelial cells. And it gets in those cells and makes a bunch of copies, and then it bursts the cells open to keep spreading. Johanna Salzer is a veterinarian and epidemiologist at CDC, and she was one of our guides when we were out there.
Short Wave
Stopping A Deadly Disease On Apache Lands
She explained this all to us and says that's when the signature rash we mentioned earlier, that spotted fever, becomes visible.
Short Wave
Stopping A Deadly Disease On Apache Lands
Oh, yeah. The rash is what's visible outside the body, but Johanna says that's happening everywhere inside the body, too. So once internal bleeding begins, it can be hard to pull back. And it is treatable if you catch it early. But if left untreated, people can die within eight days of showing symptoms.
Short Wave
Stopping A Deadly Disease On Apache Lands
Yeah. Now, this was a tick that was known to be spreading the disease in Mexico, but this was the first time it was implicated in Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever in the U.S. And it was clinging to the reservation dogs and spreading to kids who played with them. Oh.
Short Wave
Stopping A Deadly Disease On Apache Lands
Oh. And remember, people can and do die within eight days of showing symptoms. So the other part of the team's strategy is to stop tick bites altogether, which is just as hard as it sounds.
Short Wave
Stopping A Deadly Disease On Apache Lands
So the tribe's largely succeeded by taking one health approach. which means basically that the health of animals and people and plants are all intertwined and that you have to intervene at the right place to keep everyone healthy. And I want to preface this by saying they've done a lot of work on all fronts. There's early diagnosis, early treatment, public awareness.
Short Wave
Stopping A Deadly Disease On Apache Lands
We saw posters all over the res telling people about the symptoms and dangers of Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. And they have this whole protocol that gets triggered at the hospital whenever a case is suspected. They confirm it, obviously, and then they follow up and check and see if anyone else in the house, either person or pet, has it.
Short Wave
Stopping A Deadly Disease On Apache Lands
And these have been super effective, they told us. And this is good for eight months. Okay. They also go around and spray acaricide. It's this pesticide that kills ticks and mites. And Animal Control will go and spray it all around the base of the house, about three feet up. It's supposed to be harmless to people once it's dried, but it kills ticks.
Short Wave
Stopping A Deadly Disease On Apache Lands
It's remote. It's beautiful. You know, purple mountains and mesas. And they're covered in these creosote bushes and these spiky saguaro cactuses a bit east of Phoenix. And the people in these tribal lands in Arizona have been battling Rocky Mountain spotted fever for about 20 years.
Short Wave
Stopping A Deadly Disease On Apache Lands
With a lot of work and good relations in the community, a lot of the groundwork is being led by Hardy Bendel, who's a tribal member and head of animal control.
Short Wave
Stopping A Deadly Disease On Apache Lands
He took us around and introduced us to a lot of people. And he even took us to an Apache cattle ranch where we met up with a cowboy who had just recovered from Rocky Mountain spotted fever. He said he had a rash that was still fading on his foot.
Short Wave
Stopping A Deadly Disease On Apache Lands
You're totally right. Josiah Jonah, as he goes by, was a really integral part of the community and was clearly taking care of a lot of people in the reservation. That's what they've got because there's no vaccine available yet for people or for dogs.
Short Wave
Stopping A Deadly Disease On Apache Lands
It's also been found in travelers who are returning to the U.S. Back in 2023, the CDC sent out a warning for severe and fatal cases after three people who had recently traveled to northwest Mexico died from the disease in California.