Funds For Lyme Research

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Yale University School of Medicine will receive a $448,386 federal grant to fund research on a potential vaccine for Lyme disease. Based in Connecticut, the state with the most Lyme disease infections in the country, the study will focus on disrupting the feeding process of disease-carrying ticks in order to prevent infection.

The grant, awarded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, will further scientists’ efforts to find alternative means of preventing infection. The effects of Lyme disease can include facial paralysis, joint swelling, liver malfunction, irregular heartbeat, and memory loss. The disease is often difficult to diagnose since the “bull’s-eye” rash around the bite sometimes goes unnoticed and later symptoms can mimic other diseases. Costs for long-term treatment can exceed $100,000 per person.

Nearly 18,000 Americans contracted Lyme disease in 2000 alone, more than a 70 percent increase since 1992 and an exponential increase since 1982, when only 500 cases were reported. Residents in Connecticut are ten times more likely to contract the disease than anywhere else in the nation. Connecticut reported more than 3,700 cases in 2000. The disease was named for the Connecticut town of Old Lyme, where it first achieved prominence.