Health Director Calls For ‘Tiered’ Effort Against Lyme

By John Voket

The Newtown Health District director has called for a meeting with First Selectman Joseph Borst to clarify issues related to tick-borne Lyme disease following the release of a regional survey this week. The survey, released by the Fairfield County Municipal Deer Management Alliance [FCMDMA], indicates as many as 60 percent of the insects collected in Newtown were harboring the occasionally life-threatening virus.

Health district director Donna Culbert said she hopes to come away from the meeting with Mr Borst’s endorsement of a “multitiered” program to help prevent and control the spread of Lyme disease in Newtown.

While the district is among the region’s most aggressive, promoting tick checks, issuing press notices and circulating thousands of items of literature through schools and medical offices, Ms Culbert believes in the face of this most recent study, the town needs to do more. Having been affected by Lyme disease herself, Ms Culbert has said the strong focus being placed on the local deer population as main carriers of the Lyme infected ticks should overshadow other proven prevention measures.

“This confirms my fears, but we have to remember it’s not just about the deer,” Ms Culbert said. “It’s important Newtown comes together as a community to understand all the aspects about Lyme and its prevention.”

The discovery of hundreds to thousands of larval ticks on school properties and in municipal parks in Fairfield County last summer sparked fears of a worsening threat of Lyme disease this year, according to a release by the alliance.

Preliminary results released last week at the group’s monthly meeting of tick collections performed in Bethel, Easton, Greenwich, Newtown, and Redding as part of a 14-town study coordinated by the alliance and funded by participating towns, revealed high numbers of infected adult ticks.

The average infection rate of ticks collected from multiple sites was 60 percent.

While Ms Culbert said the study “adds value” to the issue she has been promoting all along, she said it makes sense that many ticks collected in a common area would be feeding on the same infected hosts. That would naturally spike the number of Lyme disease-infected ticks developed at those locations.

On the other hand, she said two years worth of random samples from across the community showing an average 25 percent infected ratio was still great cause for concern.

“Even one in four infected ticks justifies stepped-up efforts to educate people about the disease, how it is spread, and the many ways a person can prevent becoming infected,” Ms Culbert said, adding she is not being dismissive of the regional survey’s outcome. “In fact, it heightens my sense of need to promote precautions.”

Maggie Shaw, chair of the Newtown Lyme Disease Task Force, said the alliance’s results are another reminder that Lyme risk will be high this spring tick season. Ms Shaw has previously told The Newtown Bee that several members of her family, and many local acquaintances, are suffering the effects of Lyme disease.

“This high rate of infection in the ticks combined with the proximity of the ticks to trafficked areas used on a daily basis by children is alarming and should serve as a warning that risk of Lyme disease is high in ordinary everyday situations,” Ms Shaw said.

Increasing Deer

Populations

Dr Eva Sapi, assistant professor of biology and environmental science at the University of New Haven, is analyzing both the number of ticks found in each of the participating towns and the proportion of those ticks that carry the bacteria that cause Lyme disease.

“All the ticks were collected from sites very close to playgrounds and picnic areas, as close as a few yards,” said Dr Sapi.

“Increasing winter survival of deer and reduced hunting in the suburbs is contributing to the growing populations of ticks in our towns,” Dr Georgina Scholl, research chair of the FCMDMA said in the release. “The crucial role of high deer numbers in supporting tick populations and consequently perpetuating the Lyme epidemic is not understood by many residents.”

 “It is especially important to educate residents on the connection between deer numbers and numbers of cases of Lyme disease. Wilton, Ridgefield, Redding, Darien, and other local towns have active controlled deer management programs to address this concern, among others,” added alliance Chairman Patricia Sesto.

Previously reported rates of infection in ticks brought in to health departments and sent up to the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station for testing has been in the range of 22 to 38 percent over the last four years.

Dr Kirby Stafford, PhD, chief entomologist at the experiment station, said this new study “reinforces the fact that we have a lot of infected ticks in the state and that Lyme disease continues to be a primary health risk.”

Ms Culbert said Dr Stafford has agreed to review the alliance study to confirm the integrity of the study’s methodology, and to possibly clarify whether the 60 percent or the 25 percent number is more accurately reflecting the rate of infection in Newtown.

“I’m going after these answers. I want something factual from Kirby; he’s the expert I rely on to validate the information in any study,” Ms Culbert said. “I’m pressing him for this.”

 The alliance’s greatest number of opponents include many citizens who appreciate deer as wildlife and a think their numbers should not be controlled for any reason, according to the release. Others, such as Connecticut Audubon Society’s Senior Director of Science and Conservation Milan Bull, look at the damage to other species due to high deer densities.

Connecticut Audubon’s “State of the Birds report 2007” concludes that deer overabundance is one of the greatest threats to shrub land bird populations by stripping the understory and eliminating nesting habitat. There is also an increasing number of motor vehicle accidents involving deer; around 18,000 a year in Connecticut alone, according to Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection data.

The study will continue in the spring when between two and nine sites are being studied in each of the 14 towns so that more can be learned about the dangers of ticks in proximity to suburban recreational areas and schools.

In the meantime, Ms Culbert is pursuing the installation of high profile warning signs in areas where the highest number of residents might be exposed to Lyme infected ticks, and reminding them to do tick checks every day.

“I want to implement a stepped-up education campaign involving the schools, local medical offices, and Kevin’s Community Center [public clinic],” she said. Program specific grants and increased per-capita contributions from the state to the Newtown Health District, which recently merged services to include Bridgewater and Roxbury, will help underwrite the cost of the stepped-up Lyme awareness and prevention campaign, Ms Culbert said.