DPH Awarded Grant For Lyme Disease Research

HARTFORD — The Connecticut Department of Public Health (DPH) announced this week that it has been awarded a grant from the federal Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for research into the prevention of Lyme disease in Connecticut.

“We are pleased to be the recipients of this funding. These funds will support three community intervention projects; these are collaborative efforts with the Ledge Light Health District, Torrington Area District Health, and the Westport-Weston Health District. We expect that the lessons learned from this research will benefit all of our communities that are endemic for Lyme disease,” said DPH Commissioner J. Robert Galvin, MD.

“In Connecticut, Lyme disease is a long-term public health problem that will require the sustained efforts of both individuals and communities to control. While we do not have the means to eradicate this disease, we are working to identify those prevention measures that individuals and communities can implement to most successfully reduce the risk of acquiring Lyme disease,” said Commissioner Galvin.

The CDC awarded ten grants to applicants across the nation totaling more than $3.5 million for research designed to improve understanding of Lyme disease, and to examine methods for the diagnosis and prevention of this disease. Connecticut’s grant will support research projects to evaluate the effectiveness of using various integrated measures to reduce the risk of Lyme disease when prevention recommendations are followed. Provided funding remains available, the DPH expects to receive approximately $3 million over the next four years including $685,000 during the first year.

The proposed projects build on the existing Connecticut Lyme Disease Program, a multiagency collaborative effort beginning its 13th year. The program involves the DPH, the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, the Connecticut Emerging Infections Program at the Yale University School of Medicine, the Ledge Light Health District, the Torrington Area Health District, and the Westport-Weston Health District. The goal of the program’s activities is to reduce the number of people who contract Lyme disease and other diseases, such as ehrlichiosis and babesiosis, that are transmitted by ticks.

The new funds will be used by the Connecticut Lyme Disease Program to support activities that assess the usefulness of currently available measures to reduce the risk of Lyme disease in endemic areas of the United States. The activities will be conducted in the three health districts with ongoing federally funded community prevention projects and will include assessment of recommended personal protective measures to avoid tick bites, and methods for controlling ticks on residential properties such as landscape modifications, pesticide use, and control of ticks on mice and deer.

Lyme disease is a bacterial infection spread through the bite of an infected tick. It is the most prevalent tick or mosquito transmitted infectious disease in the United States. Infected ticks are present and pose a threat to people in every county of Connecticut. The emergency of Lyme disease as an important public concern in Connecticut is due to the reforestation of former farmland and greater risk of tick bites among people who live increasingly in suburban and rural areas near woodlands.