TENNESSEE — The Tennessee Department of Health issued a public advisory on July 22, 2026, warning residents about increased tick-borne disease risks and providing prevention guidance. The advisory comes as the first confirmed case of West Nile Virus in Tennessee this year was detected in North Nashville, following elevated virus levels in mosquito pools across the state last summer.

Abelardo Moncayo, director of the Vector-Borne Disease Program at the Tennessee Department of Health, said the best way to prevent mosquito bites is to use repellents. He noted that Tennessee’s Lone Star tick is especially aggressive and regular bug spray will not stop it.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated about 31 million people in the United States are bitten by ticks each year. Emergency room visits for tick bites in Tennessee's Southeast region rose from 29 per 100,000 in 2021 to 50 per 100,000 in 2026, according to CDC data.

If you are hiking, for example, you want to stay on the trail. And generally, people hike with shorts on, and so you might want to use permethrin on your shoes and on your socks, repellent on your skin. Permethrin is used in topical treatments repelling ticks and mosquitoes and can also be applied to clothing.

Moncayo said Lyme disease appears to be encroaching into Tennessee from the north, though some cases have occurred with no travel history. He said Tennessee still has far fewer Lyme disease cases than northern states. In 2023, Tennessee reported 39 Lyme disease cases, an 18% annual increase from 2022. The CDC estimates there are more than 300,000 new cases of Lyme disease every year in the U.S.

He said that in high-risk areas, doctors often recommend taking antibiotics after a bite, but the Tennessee health department does not recommend it in the state because Lyme numbers are much lower. He said after a tick bite, it can take up to a week or two to develop any symptoms, and a bite is not typically an emergency, so it can be treated at home. In 2023, 56% of ehrlichiosis cases in Tennessee required hospitalization.