URI part of $2M grant to fight Lyme disease among workers

A URI RESEARCHER is part of a team that has won a $2 million grant to study the effectiveness of permethrin-impregnated clothing in stopping the contraction of Lyme disease, which can be transmitted by a deer tick, shown here on a blade of grass.  / COURTESY U.S. CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION
A URI RESEARCHER is part of a team that has won a $2 million grant to study the effectiveness of permethrin-impregnated clothing in stopping the contraction of Lyme disease, which can be transmitted by a deer tick, shown here on a blade of grass. / COURTESY U.S. CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION

CRANSTON – The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has awarded $2 million over four years to a team of University of Rhode Island and University of North Caroline researchers to study Lyme disease prevention and exposure among outdoor workers.
The grant – announced by U.S. Sen. Jack F. Reed and URI Professor of Public Health Entomology Tom Mather – is being made by the CDC’s National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. It calls for about $240,000 to be made available to URI each year for the next four to test the effectiveness of permethrin-impregnated clothing on outdoor workers. The substance is lethal for ticks, which carry Lyme disease, but if used in the correct amounts, it should not harm people or the environment. Treated clothing is commercially available.
Mather, along with University of North Carolina researcher Steven Meshnick, will lead the team in discovering if such permethrin-treated articles of clothing are part of a viable strategy for reducing tick-borne diseases, including Lyme disease, for those who spend a significant amount of time in tick habitats.
According to a release put out by URI, the incidence of tick-borne disease throughout the United States has doubled since 1991, with an estimated 300,000 cases of Lyme disease diagnosed per year, with 95 percent of them occurring in 14 states, of which Rhode Island is one.
In addition to his academic position, Mather heads the TickEncounter Resource Center at URI. It educates the public on how to prevent infection by tick-borne diseases.

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