Lincoln had one of the highest Lyme disease infection rates in Massachusetts in 2014, according to state Department of Public Health data published in the Boston Globe on October 12.
A map showing the rates of infection per 100,000 residents by town shows that Lincoln’s rate was 248.35, which translates to about 16 actual cases for Lincoln’s population of 6,362 (as of the 2010 census). Only 28 of the 391 Massachusetts cities and towns had higher Lyme disease rates. Of the 28 towns with the highest rates (250 or more cases per 100,000 residents), the biggest concentrations were on Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard, followed by a cluster of towns in the southwest corner of the state.
Nationally, Lyme disease is most prevalent in the Northeast and the Upper Midwest, the article notes. Massachusetts had the third-highest overall rate of any state at 54.1 cases per 100,000 residents, behind only Maine (87.9) and Vermont (70.5).
A report from the Middlesex Tick Task Force earlier this year noted that 40 percent of ticks from Lincoln that were tested in 2014 carried Lyme disease. Almost as many carried the bacterium that causes Borrelia miyamotoi disease, which does not cause a rash but can be more serious than Lyme disease. It was first recognized in the Northeast in 2013.
This is not new. Two years ago, when this problem started, I asked the Lincoln Health Commissioner for spraying. The commissioner’s response was that spraying is self-help . . .. . I am afraid I do not have the means to spray the entire town, otherwise it would have been done. Ok Can we do it now?