After a warm October weekend, 165 Islanders lined up to donate their blood at the Agricultural Hall and Morning Glory Farm for a study on the public health burden of tick-borne conditions, specifically chronic or persisting Lyme disease.
A mini-laboratory was set up under the wooden rafters of the Agricultural Hall on Oct. 12 for the study; the same was done at Morning Glory the next day. Islanders had their blood drawn by registered nurses and filled out a two-page survey about tick bites; the study was open to year-round residents or visitors who spend more than two months on the Island each year.
Participants, who were volunteers and not paid, will receive their test results this winter. Though researchers await results to give locals any verdict from the study, they did speak to the importance of information from as many sources as possible as ticks continue to threaten public health, especially on the Island.
The bloodwork and survey of Islanders will be used for a study funded by the National Institute of Health (NIH) and conducted by Dr. Sam Telford, a tick specialist and professor of infectious disease and global health at the Tufts University’s Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine. The main purpose of the study is to research persistent Lyme disease symptoms that don’t go away after initial treatment. But Telford said the panel they collected will screen for all tick-borne conditions.
Some participants told The Times they volunteered because they wanted to know if they unknowingly contracted tick-borne conditions, like tularemia, Lyme, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, or the allergy to mammalian products, alpha gal syndrome. While many of those conditions present with obvious symptoms, there are some who have contracted the diseases or allergy and are asymptomatic. And others who volunteered for the study said they hoped the data collected from their input and bloodwork would help research around ticks.
“We’re trying to better understand the role of other infections in the environment and other risk factors,” Telford said. He named risk factors like insecticide exposure. “And whether they contribute to this group of people who have a hard time resolving Lyme disease.”
The questionnaire for participants named other potential environmental factors through questions, like “Do you have a companion animal?” More inquiries on the form asked how prevalent deer and mice were around or within a person’s home, methods of mosquito bite prevention, and the amount of time people spend outdoors.
Telford’s background is in epidemiology, and he has pioneered several peer-reviewed studies on ticks. His research on the small arachnids stretches back to an infamous deer cull on Great Island on the Cape, which he helped conduct as a graduate student. Telford said the results of the deer cull on Great Island were almost immediate — deer tick larvae significantly lessened and have been on the decline ever since. He added that he returns to Great Island every fall to check areas for ticks.
Telford told The Times that ticks aren’t a new problem on Martha’s Vineyard, but they are a pervasive one. “I’ve been coming out to Martha’s Vineyard doing Lyme disease work since 1993,” he said as he sat outside of the Agricultural Hall. “So when this project came up with NIH, and we received funding for it, we obviously had to include Martha’s Vineyard because people are so exposed to ticks out here.”
Telford’s most recent research is one of many efforts that has emerged in the last year for the study and treatment of tick-borne conditions as well as the eradication of ticks as alpha-gal cases rise and general anxiety around ticks grows.
A new tick center opened at the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital this summer to treat tick-borne conditions and take pressure off of the emergency room. The hospital also launched a research center to study alpha-gal and began its first study this fall.
Tick Free MV, a nonprofit formed to specifically address deer abundance on the Island as a way to decrease the number of ticks, launched last winter and hopes to decrease the herd by 70 percent. Martha’s Vineyard Medical, which opened last fall, started a tick center soon after. All of these efforts come as the topic of ticks is on many Islanders’ minds, regardless of seasonality, wealth, housing availability, or other disparities that exist on the Island.
“We talk about ticks all the time,” Janet Stoddard, a pastor at the Chilmark Community Church, told The Times at the Agricultural Hall. “It’s a major part of conversation.”
Stoddard, who lives in Chilmark, said she participated in the study to see her own results and participate in a broader understanding of tick-borne conditions. She hasn’t yet secured a primary care provider on the Island because of waitlists for care and said she hasn’t been tested yet.
Another study participant, photographer Joshua Robinson-White, said he attended because he was “curious.” “I’ve been bitten by a bunch of ticks this year,” he said. He added that his awareness of ticks, especially in the summer and fall months, keeps him from going outside as much.
Local tick epidemiologist Lea Hamner, who assisted with Telford’s study, said she participated in a similar study last year, and she’s hoping the data will lead to a greater understanding of how tick-borne conditions are experienced by the population.
“How many people are not sick at all, how many people are sick, how many people have been exposed — that’s super valuable for me as an epidemiologist,” Hamner said. She said the public health surveillance conducted on the Island is good, but more information is always better.
“There’s no such thing as perfect data,” Hamner said. “This is a different type of data, and it gives us a snapshot in time of how many people on Martha’s Vineyard have evidence of Lyme disease infections in their past.”
In addition, she said, the study will reveal the other conditions, like alpha-gal, that are present in participants.
“Being able to look at a complex problem from multiple viewpoints is extremely valuable,” she said. “This is one of the ways.”
