In a recent interview about burgeoning tick populations in the US, the CDC’s Sue Visser bluntly told the Associated Press, “It’s very bad and has only been getting worse.”

That statement became the unofficial theme of a recent special meeting in Washington DC.

The workshop brought together patient advocates, researchers, clinicians, public health officials and others to give feedback to the recently launched national vector-borne disease strategy. About half the group met in person, while the others joined remotely.

(Three representatives of LymeDisease.org took part—CEO Lorraine Johnson, science writer Lonnie Marcum, and me.)

Some background

Vectors—biting insects and arachnids like mosquitoes, ticks, fleas, and lice—can spread infections that make people sick. Most vector-borne diseases (VBD) in the US are spread by ticks—but those other critters can cause big problems too.

The Kay Hagan Tick Act (supported by the Lyme community and signed into law in 2019) required the Department of Health and Human Services to develop a strategy to fight tick-borne diseases as well as other vector-borne illnesses.

The plan lays out five goals:

1. Better understand when, where, and how people are exposed to and get sick or die from VBDs.
2. Develop, evaluate, and improve tools, methods, and guidance to diagnose VBDs and their pathogens.
3. Develop, evaluate, and improve tools, methods, and guidance to prevent and control VBDs.
4. Develop and assess drugs and treatment strategies for VBDs.
5. Disseminate and implement public health tools, programs, and collaborations to prevent, detect, diagnose, and respond to VBD threats.

Click here to learn more about the VBD strategy.

Stay tuned as we all discover how this story unfolds. My hope: that working together, we can turn “it’s bad and getting worse” into “it was bad and now it’s better.”

TOUCHED BY LYME is written by Dorothy Kupcha Leland, President of LymeDisease.org. She is co-author of Finding Resilience: A Teen’s Journey Through Lyme Disease and of When Your Child Has Lyme Disease: A Parent’s Survival Guide. Contact her at dleland@lymedisease.org.