Lyme Disease Researchers Seek Consensus As Number of Cases Grows

Scientists have assembled a large body of knowledge about Lyme disease over the past 40 years, yet controversies remain and the number of cases continues to rise. In the United States, reported cases of Lyme disease, which is transmitted from wild animals to humans by tick bites, have tripled in the past 20 years. A multitude of interacting factors are driving the increase in Lyme disease cases, but their relative importance remains unclear, according to Marm Kilpatrick, PhD, a Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of California (UC) at Santa Cruz. Nevertheless, he noted that there are a number of promising strategies for controlling the disease that have not been widely implemented. Dr. Kilpatrick is lead author of a paper published April 24, 2017 in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B that examines the complex array of factors influencing the prevalence of Lyme disease And Identifies The Major Gaps In Understanding That Must Be Filled To Control This Important Disease. The Paper Is Titled “Lyme Disease Ecology In A Changing World: Consensus, Uncertainty And Critical Gaps For Improving Control.” Some of the unresolved issues are highly contentious, so Dr. Kilpatrick sought input for the paper from a wide range of Lyme disease researchers and developed a consensus on areas of agreement.