Nymph Season Signals Return Of Increased Lyme Disease Risk

Newtown Health District Director Donna McCarthy has just attended a presentation on Lyme disease by Kirby C. Stafford III, PhD, chief scientist from the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station.

This presentation was one of several Lyme disease conferences offered at the Danbury Hospital as part of the Danbury Hospital’s Lyme Disease Task Force’s work. Dr Thomas Draper, Newtown Health District’s medical advisor, has been instrumental in the formation and collaborative efforts of the Danbury Hospital’s Lyme Disease Task Force.

Donna McCarthy made a presentation at the April 24 session regarding Public Health Prevention of Lyme disease. Dr Stafford’s session, on April 27, was entitled “Get Ticked Off — Take Control Over Ticks” and was very informative, Ms McCarthy said.

“The fact that nymphs are the greatest offenders regarding Lyme disease was reinforced,” she said. “Nymph activity is primarily in May, June, and July and coincides with increased human activity in the outdoors. Combine those two increased activity levels with the barely visible size of the nymph and the its infective rate, and you have a recipe for trouble.”

Another important point Dr Stafford made was the fact that data has shown that highest risk activity that resulted in Lyme disease was “play,” and the highest incidence of Lyme disease occurs in the 5 to 9 and 10- to 14-year-old age group of children. This is one more good reason to take proper and diligent precautions against ticks.

The Newtown Health District is urging residents pay attention to their possible exposure to ticks. “It is critically important that when you are outdoors that you be careful to avoid tick habitats whenever possible; use personal protection — protective clothing, long pants and sleeves, pants tucked in, long hair tied back, and use of repellents if desired and used according to the manufacturers directions — and check yourself, your children, and your pets for ticks when you come in from the outdoors,” Ms McCarthy said. “If you find a tick attached, remove it carefully and properly with thin tipped tweezers just behind the head — the place of attachment and pulling straight out, disinfect the area and put the tick in a sealed plastic bag or container and bring the tick to the Newtown Health District office where we can send it out for testing for the spirochetes that cause Lyme disease. “

Lyme disease and other tick borne illnesses can be disruptive to devastating in their effects. Early detection, diagnosis, and treatment is of the utmost importance to enable recovery, Ms McCarthy said.

“If you have a student in the Newtown school system, please look for a letter and two brochures being sent home as a collaborative effort between the Health District and the Newtown School system,” she said. “Elementary, intermediate, and middle school students will be bringing this information home; the high school students will have the information sent to their homes. This is important information and we strongly encourage you to read through it and keep it as a reference.”

For additional information contact the Health District office at 270-4291, email the district at newtownhd@earthlink.net.

Dr Stafford believes this tick season will be worse than last year, because tick populations follow a pattern of increasing one year and decreasing the next. Tick populations in 2003 were lower than in 2002, so according to the trend, the 2004 tick population will be once again on the increase, Dr Stafford said in a joint statement released by the Lyme Disease Foundation and the Connecticut Public Health Department. .