Students Taking Home Important Lyme Disease ‘Tick’ Sheet

By John Voket

By this time next week, every public school student from kindergarten through high school will be sent home with important information from the Newtown Health District. The bright green flyer, or so-called “tick sheet,” was produced to provide an early warning to local parents and caregivers that tick season and its accompanying incidents of Lyme disease are upon us.

According to Health District Director Donna Culbert, Connecticut has the highest number of reported Lyme disease cases in the United States. And at one point last summer, Newtown was leading the state in the highest number of captured or removed Lyme-carrying ticks presented for testing.

As such, she is acting both locally and regionally to bring an enhanced degree of expertise to bear and to foster awareness and prevention of the illness.

Ms Culbert said that in recent months, Newtown’s Health District has joined forces with health professionals in nine other communities that comprise the Housatonic Valley Council of Elected Officials (HVCEO), to form the Housatonic Valley Association of Health Directors (HVAHD).

“We started working together on emergency preparedness issues and decided to pool our resources and work collaboratively to address Lyme disease as well,” Ms Culbert said Monday, as she was busily stacking reams of “tick sheets” destined for school offices in the district.

“And as a result of our collaboration, we have also begun working with the Danbury Hospital staff to bring the treatment component into the picture,” she said. “This represents the latest opportunity for municipal health officials to work side-by-side with the medical community.”

Ms Culbert said the enhanced partnerships between health and the medical communities are vital to bring prevention and treatment efforts together.

“The medical community has often been out there on its own dealing with treatment, and may or may not actively address prevention depending on an individual doctor’s practices,” Ms Culbert said. “But now, with this partnership, our health districts bring the prevention aspect full circle.”

At the same time, the Newtown Health District has been contacting regional landscaping professionals including those at Tim Wilder Tree Care, Precision Landscaping, Newtown Landscaping and Excavation, Newtown Land Services, Top Notch Landscaping, TSP Landscaping, and Willow Landscaping Design, providing literature and information to be passed on to their customers about preventative landscaping practices.

“We looked to many of these local companies as partners in helping extend the message of prevention to all their clients, whether they are homeowners and businesses,” Ms Culbert said. “At the same time, it provides an enhanced level of professional expertise to these companies.”

Garret Henchcliffe of Top Notch Landscaping said he was looking forward to reviewing the materials, and would value the opportunity to pass on the information as a public service to his existing and prospective clients.

“If there is anything I can do to help my clients achieve the results they are looking for, while reducing the environments for ticks to spread, it’s a win-win situation for everybody,” Mr Henchcliffe said.

Besides the prevention information being distributed through the Newtown School District, Ms Culbert said the local Parks and Recreation Department is also taking preventative measures by installing bait boxes throughout town parks to entice rodents and other small creatures that may contract and carry Lyme disease.

“Surprisingly, deer do not carry the disease; however they do transport infected ticks,” she said. “But mice, chipmunks and other small rodents do carry the disease once they are bitten by an infected tick.”

While the bait boxes will not harm the animals, they will provide food laced with a substance that kills ticks, including any Lyme-infested insects that may be hosted by the animals, she explained.

“It’s really all about educating yourself, and creating home and play environments that are as tick free as possible,” Ms Culbert said. “After that, it becomes a matter of not getting bit.”

While there is still no vaccine against Lyme disease, Ms Culbert said that if someone does contract Lyme disease, early detection and treatment are critical.

“It’s such a difficult disease, but if it’s caught and treated early, the prognosis is excellent,” she said.

With Lyme disease being among the top public health concerns in Newtown after substance and alcohol abuse, the Health District’s commitment to Lyme disease prevention is a top priority for Ms Culbert and her staff.

“We like to live in or near the woods, so we have an even greater risk of exposure,” she said. “Because of that, I encourage everyone in town to do a tick check, twice a day on themselves, as well as on any other members of the household.”

With the recent warming trend, Ms Culbert said infected tick nymphs will be prevalent in the coming weeks, and since they may be smaller than the period at the end of this sentence, they are extremely difficult to detect.

“I advise everyone to have a magnifying glass and a hand mirror to help you locate any ticks that may have attached, and a pair of pointed tweezers to remove them,” she said.

Any ticks that are detached may be brought to the Health District offices on Peck’s Lane for testing to determine if Lyme disease is present. Besides copies of the bright green flyer going home in the coming days with school students, the office offers numerous additional items aimed at Lyme disease education and prevention.

For more information, contact the Newtown Health District at 270-4291.