A tick bite may have caused the death of a teenager who collapsed in his backyard in Poughkeepsie, N.Y.
Doctors battled to save Joseph Elone after he fell to the ground just after midnight on Aug. 5 — the eve of his mother’s birthday — but the popular honor roll student never regained consciousness and died hours later.
The 17-year-old had not been feeling well for two weeks with a minor cough, fatigue and a headache.
He had been tested for Lyme disease and strep throat by his doctor, but tests came back negative.
Doctors now believe he died of Powassan encephalitis transmitted through a tick bite and, as a result, the Dutchess County Department of Health has issued its third health advisory in four years about the deadly virus.
On the day he collapsed, the teen — who, according to the Poughskeepie Journal, wanted to become an environmental engineer and had dreams of starting a band — had been to the shops with his mom Diane to buy throat sweets before the family held a barbecue to celebrate her 49th birthday.
He was in the backyard when he collapsed, and Joseph’s father Benedict, who was inside the family home, rushed out to his son where he found him lying on his back on the lawn.
He was rushed to Vassar Brothers Medical Center, but doctors were unable to save him.
“The whole idea … that he just dropped dead, that just blows my mind,” the boy’s father said.
A postmortem examination revealed that Joseph died from myocarditis and meningitis, possibly from the rare virus.
Dutchess County officials believe he may have been bitten by a tick infected with the untreatable virus, which can be transmitted by a bite in a matter of minutes.
According to the Poughkeepsie Journal, a recent study by the journal Parasites & Vectors reports 6% of ticks in the Hudson Valley carry a variant of Powassan encephalitis, which experts say while relatively small compared to other diseases, is high for one so deadly.
Dr. David Roth, co-chair of the Tick-Borne Disease Alliance, told NBC New York, “There are no diagnostic tests for the disease, and no treatments that are effective.”
On a mobile device? Watch the video here.
