Tick-borne diseases are a serious public health problem. Lyme disease is the most common tick-borne disease, but there are at least 20 different infections that are transmitted by ticks in the United States.  According to the CDC, in 2017 there were more than 42,743 new cases of Lyme disease are diagnosed each year. Using the CDC’s own estimate that Lyme is under-reported by a factor of 10, that’s puts the yearly number at closer to 427,430 cases, the highest it’s ever been.

“Reported” means only those cases that meet the CDC’s surveillance criteria for confirmed and probable cases [remember my column from a few weeks ago defining criteria]. The number of new cases has been increasing in recent years, and the areas where ticks are found are expanding, which puts more people in more states at potential risk.

The Tick-Borne Disease Working Group was established by Congress in 2016 as part of the 21st Century Cures Act to provide subject matter expertise and to review federal efforts related to all tick-borne diseases, to help ensure interagency coordination and minimize overlap, and to examine research priorities.  The focus of this effort is the development of a report to the Secretary of Health and Human Services and Congress on the findings and any recommendations of the Working Group for the federal response to tick-borne disease prevention, treatment and research, as well as how to address gaps in these areas. 

In February 2018, the Working Group established six subcommittees and I was honored to have been selected to Co-Chair the Access to Care Services and Patient Supports subcommittee.  Each subcommittee identified priorities and developed a report to the Working Group that described current efforts, gaps in research, and potentials actions to be considered by the Working Group for the 2018 report to the HHS Secretary and Congress. 

That report has been submitted and can be found here: https://www.hhs.gov/ash/advisory-committees/tickbornedisease/reports/index.html

For more information about Lyme and tick-borne disease, to stay informed on federal Tick-borne Disease Working group and subcommittee works or local state wide efforts made by Midcoast Lyme Disease Support & Education, visit www.mldse.org 

Paula is the president of the MLDSE, the co-chair of the Access to Care Services and Patient Support subcommittee of the federal HHS Tick-borne Disease Working Group, the Maine-partner of the national Lyme Disease Association, member of Maine’s CDC Vector-borne Workgroup and active in Maine’s Lyme legislation. You can reach her at paula@mldse.org and visit her website www.mldse.org