Seeking solutions to the challenges of tick-borne diseases where they start… with the tick!
CDC estimates 31 million people are bitten by tick each year*, and although there over 475,000 new cases of Lyme per year, Lyme disease is not the only risky outcome of tick bites.
Changing the surveillance paradigm
Measuring the risk of zoonoses requires novel approaches to surveillance: approaches that center on the humans affected most by vector-borne diseases. The core of this work since 2006 has been the TickReport testing service, which offers qPCR pathogen testing to the public. Individuals can use these results to gauge their risk of pathogen exposure from a tick bite, but the anonymized data from that tick also goes into our nationwide tick surveillance database.
Science isn’t just a product, it’s a process of accumulating information (data) under exacting standards. Unlike private diagnostic companies or even many health agencies, we make the data we’re gathering freely available to the public. And when we occasionally write reports on our findings, we put these reports through the rigors of peer review to ensure that what you read is not just our opinion, but represents the best understanding rooted in evidence.
Real results
