For what seems to be the first time in history, an illness that may kill up to 70% of those it attacks was recently found in the United States.

In accordance with a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) investigation, a bacteria responsible for scrub typhus was detected in mites inhabiting 50% of national parks in North Carolina.

It can infect humans through bites, resulting in signs like limb-covering rashes and black, scab-like sores on the skin. In extreme circumstances, it can also damage the heart and lungs’ ability to operate, which can be fatal.

The research’s principal investigators, from North Carolina State University, cautioned that additional observation was required in the event the illness traveled to other states.

Although the disease has not yet been found in any North Carolina residents, the number of bug-borne infections is rising across the country.

The United States said last month that Florida and Texas were found to have their first domestic instances of malaria in 20 years. Just recently, it was discovered that the West Nile Virus spread into new towns in Connecticut and Ohio.

Additionally, there are worries about the development of tick-borne illnesses like babesiosis, which kills one out of every five persons it infects.

The study’s principal investigator, Dr. Kaiying Chen, an entomologist at North Carolina State University, informed Daily Mail this was the first instance of scrub typhus being found in an autonomous chigger [mite] in the US.

Scrub typhus is indigenous to a region known as the Tsutsugamushi Triangle, which runs from Pakistan to very eastern Russia and Australia. It sees a million infections annually.

According to projections, the disease may cause up to 60,000 deaths each year; however, the number of fatalities has been kept to a minimum by the prompt delivery of therapies, such as the antibiotic doxycycline.

This stops the illness from progressing to later, potentially fatal, stages.