The Battle Against Lyme Disease Continues

By Kaaren Valenta

When Fred Drumm heard that there was a Lyme Disease forum in Newtown this week, the 49-year-old Danbury resident got his sister, Nancy, to take him.

“I’ve tested positive for all three forms [of tick-caused diseases], both of my daughters have Lyme – even my dog has it,” he explained. “I’ve been battling it since 1994, when I started feeling lousy like I had the flu, but I wasn’t diagnosed until 1998. I’m a commercial and industrial painting contractor but I can’t work anymore because I never know how I’ll feel when I get up in the morning.”

Mr Drumm came to the Fireside Inn Monday evening to hear the program, “No Ticks Allowed,” sponsored by the Newtown Rotary Club and the Lyme Disease Task Force. The speakers included First Selectman Herb Rosenthal, Dr Kirby Stafford of the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, Dr John Reed, superintendent of schools, and task force member Doug Harrison.

Dr Stafford, an entomologist, is an expert on deer ticks and on the use of landscaping and insecticides to control the incidence of ticks on residential lawns and public areas such as parks and playgrounds.

 “Connecticut has the highest incidence of Lyme disease of any state,” Dr Stafford said. “There were 3,772 cases reported in 2000, and there were many more that were not reported.”

Lyme disease is transmitted to humans by the bite of the tiny deer tick, Ixodes scapularis, which lives in the leaf litter and brush founded in and near wooded areas. Ticks become infected with the Lyme disease bacteria when they feed on infected white-footed mice and other small mammals. Most human cases of Lyme disease are contracted in June, July, and August, when the tiny nymphal stage of the tick is most active.

Dr Stafford said surveys have shown that 82 percent of the ticks are found within three meters of the edge of wooded areas, ornamental plantings, and stone walls because the ticks prefer a moist environment.

“You won’t find many ticks in the middle of the lawn because the conditions – the sunlight and the lack of humidity – aren’t hospitable to ticks,” he explained. “If you clear leaf litter along the edge of your property and install a three-foot-wide barrier of wood chips, stones, gravel or mulch, you can reduce the incidence of ticks by 50 to 90 percent.”

Children’s play sets should be in sunny areas in the middle of the lawn, not on a shaded edge, he said. Wood piles, compost piles, and ground covers should be away from traveled areas.

While pesticides are effective when applied correctly in conjunction with the landscaping changes, most of these chemicals should be applied by professionals, Dr Stafford said. Some, including Dursban and Diazanon, are being withdrawn from residential use because of their toxicity. Sevin and Tempo SC Ultra still are allowed. (More information is available at the Weston/Westport Department of Health “Target Lyme Disease” website at www.wwhd.org or by calling 203-227-3875).

“Don’t spray the entire property – spray along the edge to form a barrier,” Dr Stafford said.

For personal protection while outside in possible tick areas, wear long pants and tuck the bottoms into socks to prevent ticks from crawling inside. Ticks do not fly, jump, or fall from trees, Dr Stafford said, so they are usually picked up when a person’s legs brush up against the tick habitat. Once on a human, ticks can move very quickly and be found anywhere, even on the scalp.

“Personal protection measures are important,” Dr Stafford said. “A nightly tick check – especially of children – should be done. Outside, use Deet-based repellent, and apply a permethrin-based repellent to clothing.”

Dr Stafford said the peak incidence of tick bites in humans is in five- to nine-year-old children and in middle-aged adults, probably because those groups tend to spend the most time outdoors playing or doing yardwork and gardening.

A Lyme disease vaccine is on the market and individuals should talk to their doctors about whether it is advisable to use it, he said.

Dr Stafford said a pilot project that appears promising involves treating deer and mice with a repellent, fipronil, that is the same as the product Frontline used on dogs and cats for tick control. After a trial in 1999 on Mason’s Island in Mystic, specially designed bait boxes and feeders are now being used in Groton, Westport, and Weston to see how useful they will be in controlling the tick population there. The problem, Dr Stafford said, is that when there is a large acorn crop, the animals tend to ignore the treated feeders and thus do not come in contact with the tick repellent.

Town Action

First Selectman Herb Rosenthal said the town is taking steps to help prevent Lyme disease by spraying the parks twice per year, spring and fall, and by new landscaping practices at Dickinson Park. Educational brochures and other material are available to the public in the town clerk’s office, the selectmen’s office, the Booth Library, and the Health District office, he said.

“I am pleased to announce that the Newtown Board of Health met this morning and decided to conduct a year-long study commencing with the beginning of the next tick season in the spring,” Mr Rosenthal said. “Once a month they will be doing a drag for ticks at a park, a school, and a trail. They will keep track of the number of ticks collected, and send them out for testing, and keep a count of the number of [those that test] positive for Lyme disease. This will help them to assess the areas of greatest threat to humans in Newtown and to develop programs to deal with it accordingly.”

Dr Reed said he is frustrated by the fact that neither the State of Connecticut nor the town has allocated money or designed a protocol to help slow the incidence of Lyme disease. He said he has talked to the Parks & Rec department about the sports fields, provided information to the school district staff, and cut back vegetation at Middle Gate School, but he believes that much more needs to be done on the state level.

“I think there is no excuse that the State of Connecticut has allocated no dollars for Lyme disease,” he said.

A safe, effective vaccine may be the best solution, he said, because “you can’t deny little kids the joy of living, running around outside, and building tree houses.”

The school district plans to run informative programs about Lyme disease on Channel 17. Dr Thomas Draper, the town’s medical advisor, is encouraging Danbury Hospital to hold a symposium on Lyme disease for medical professionals, Dr Reed added.

 Lyme Disease Task Force member Doug Harrison said the Newtown schools removed 118 ticks from students last year, but emphasized that these ticks probably came from other locations. Fifty-eight cases of Lyme were reported to the schools. Testing for Lyme disease often is ineffective because an estimated 35 percent of the time the most common test, the ELISA, fails to find it. In addition, ticks can spread two other diseases, babesiosis and human granulocytic ehrlichiosis.

Because the deer ticks are so tiny – the size of a period on a printed page – they are often overlooked. Approximately one in four deer ticks is believed to carry the bacterial spirochete that causes Lyme, but a tick must be attached and feeding for more than 24 hours, and usually for more than 48, for the infection to be passed to humans.

Because many persons who are bitten by infected ticks do not know it, and also do not get the telltale bull’s-eye rash, they may not receive treatment with antibiotics when they develop flu-like symptoms. Untreated, or in some cases even if treated, Lyme disease can cause such long-term symptoms as severe arthritis, debilitating fatigue, depression, memory loss, and neurological, psychiatric, and cardiac problems.

Persons who take steps to prevent Lyme disease should not let their guard down and become complacent, Dr Stafford said.

“Lyme disease is not going away,” he said.