East End boy, 9, slowly recovers from rare tick-borne ‘rabbit fever’
A 9-year-old Riverhead boy is among three probable Suffolk County cases of a rare tick-borne illness known as “rabbit fever” — amid a surge in bites experts say may be linked to last winter’s persistent snow cover.
John Detmer and an unnamed Ridge resident were identified by News 12 Long Island as two of those affected after county health officials disclosed the illnesses last week. Formal confirmation can take several weeks.
The boy’s family was told May 20 that he had tested positive for tularemia after his mother removed a tick from his head April 23, according to Newsday, which first reported the incident. He developed swollen lymph nodes and suffered from a fever for about 11 days, the outlet reported.
He remains fatigued more than two months after his diagnosis despite completing two rounds of antibiotics, News 12 reported last week.
“I’m still hurting. I can go to sleep, but I just get really tired,” John told the outlet.
The bacteria can be transmitted by American dog ticks and other tick species, as well as deer flies and infected animals. The illness can become life-threatening if left untreated but is generally treatable with antibiotics, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The probable cases follow an unusually early and active tick season. Experts said that persistent snow cover may have helped more ticks survive the winter by insulating them from cold and dry conditions, the News-Review reported in May.
Tick bites accounted for 183 out of every 100,000 emergency-room visits in the Northeast in April, up sharply from 131 during the same month last year and the highest level for that time of year in nearly a decade, according to the CDC’s Tick Bite Data Tracker.
The elevated activity continued into June. Ticks began biting several weeks earlier than usual, while emergency-room visits for bites nationwide were running at the third-highest rate recorded during the past decade, CDC epidemiologist Alison Hinckley told NPR in mid-June.
While tularemia is rarer than tick-borne illnesses such as Lyme disease, it is not unheard of locally. Suffolk County recorded four cases in 2024, three in 2023 and one in 2022, according to the State Health Department.
About 200 tularemia cases are reported across the United States annually, according to the CDC.
“It’s not surprising to see three cases in New York. Having said that, this is a very, very different infection,” Dr. Sharon Nachman, chief of the Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at Stony Brook Children’s Hospital, told The Suffolk Times on Monday.
Tularemia can cause a high fever, swollen lymph nodes and a sore at the site of the bite, with patients often seriously ill by the time they seek treatment.
“Those patients present to us with an ulcer at the area of the bite, swollen lymph nodes, and high fever,” Dr. Nachman said. “They are quite sick. We see those children and adults in the emergency room because of their illness, which is quite different.”
Tularemia gets its “rabbit fever” nickname because rabbits and hares are especially susceptible to the bacteria. People can be infected by handling a sick or dead animal, while ticks and deer flies can transmit the bacteria after feeding on infected wildlife.
It is not known to spread from person to person.
“We have so many wild rabbits in our yard all the time. Right away, I never thought in a million years it could have been that,” Tracey Detmer, the boy’s mom, told News 12.
Dr. Nachman said a sick rabbit may appear lethargic or fail to flee when approached and warned residents not to handle sick or dead wildlife without protective clothing.
“That translates into shoes and socks, pants, long sleeves, gloves, and a mask,” Dr. Nachman said. “You don’t want any of these fleas or ticks that are feeding on them to jump on you.”
