Tick-Borne Disease and Deer
Tick-Borne Disease and Deer
To the Editor:
Many people have here attacked my position without really knowing my position, so I am going to start out my explanation here, and continue at www.deerfacts.org/PositionPaper.html.
A survey last year revealed that 48 percent of Newtown households have had at least one family member treated for Lyme disease.
If you take the 2000 Census figure of 8,325 households (and accept that Newtown has grown since then), you realize that at least 4,000 people in Newtown have had Lyme disease. It could be much higher, if you consider that many members of a given family may have been stricken.
This past yearâs testing of deer ticks at the Newtown Middle School and Alâs Trail revealed that 70 percent were infected with Lyme bacteria.
There are other emerging tick-borne diseases, such as babesiosis and ehrlichiosis. All these diseases can be fatal. A single deer tick bite can give you one, two, or more diseases.
Lyme disease isnât retreating. The latest figures available (2006-2007) from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention state that it has increased in Connecticut by 71 percent in that period, and in the US by 38 percent. It is the fastest-growing vector-borne disease in our country. It has now reached all 50 states.
Caught early, Lyme is quickly curable, but at late stages, it is very difficult to cure. There is a powerful documentary film, Under Our Skin, being shown in area towns, that portrays the acute suffering of people in late-stage, persistent Lyme disease. It will be shown January 24 at the New Milford Public Library, February 7 at the Booth Library here in Newtown, and February 8 at the Jewish Community Center in Sherman. All showings will be at 1 pm. People from Newtown appear in this film.
When I learned these facts, and more, I realized that I cannot, in good conscience, remain silent while so many people in Newtown are getting sick and suffering. With some alarm, I also realized that when we send our Boy Scouts out into the woods, they had better be more prepared for this tick-borne disease hazard, as they strive to be prepared for every other challenge.
I have intensely studied the tick-borne disease problem and its interlocking relationship with the problem of deer overpopulation. Deer overpopulation is right now silently killing our forests and destroying the habitat for native species of flora and fauna. We have an unacceptably high number of deer-vehicle collisions each year, with odds are that sooner or later, one in Newtown will involve a human fatality. We have the damage to our yards, which might be a mere annoyance if the deer were not transporting hundreds of infected ticks to our doorsteps. And we have the harm to the deer themselves that will come of overpopulation and eventual starvation in a severe winter.
(Continued at www.deerfacts.org/PositionPaper.html)
 David A. Shugarts
Member, Newtown Lyme Disease Task Force Newtown Liaison, Fairfield County Municipal
Deer Management Alliance
19 Wendover Road, Newtown                                    January 7, 2009