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As you confirm in "Dangerous Ticks" (editorial, Aug. 27), we have a long way to go before our families can enjoy the outdoors without undue worry. The new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate of 300,000 Lyme disease cases a year is a far cry from the officially reported number of nearly 30,000 cases — and with more accurate estimating we expect this number to increase in the future. Also, the estimate doesn't take into account those infected with the other devastating tick-borne illnesses that you cite.
Unfortunately, the mandated sequestration cuts have reduced crucial grant making by the National Institutes of Health and the C.D.C., making it even harder for innovative projects to find funding.
This means that the importance of privately funded research, which is the mission of my organization, Lyme Research Alliance, is greater than ever. It is our fervent hope that with the public's support we will be able to advance the boundaries of knowledge so we can defeat Lyme and other tick-borne diseases.
PETER WILD
Executive Director
Lyme Research Alliance
Stamford, Conn., Aug. 27, 2013
To the Editor:
Your editorial brought timely recognition of the growing threat from other deer tick-borne infections besides Lyme disease. Of special concern is the Powassan encephalitis virus, against which there are no specific treatments. The call for more research on tick vectors of these diseases and their rodent and deer hosts is justified.
Unfortunately, the cadre of medical entomologists — the scientists with expertise on the arthropods that transmit diseases — is diminishing, with scant replacement. One after another of the leading tick experts at the National Institutes of Health, Centers for Disease Control and academic centers, like Yale University and the University of California, Berkeley, have retired or are near retirement.
Additional funds for research may not yield desired results if there are not the experienced scientists to carry it out. The country also needs training programs for the next generation of medical entomologists to carry on the work.
ALAN BARBOUR
Irvine, Calif., Aug. 27, 2013
The writer is a professor of medicine and microbiology and molecular genetics at the University of California, Irvine, and is the co-discoverer of the cause of Lyme disease.
To the Editor:
The Times is right to call for more action and more research on tick-borne diseases. However, the brutal fact is that research costs money, money that will have to come from an ever-shrinking pie of available research funds.
Sequestration affects our ability to understand and treat not only Lyme disease, but also cancer, Alzheimer's disease, heart disease, stroke, diabetes and a host of other conditions.
It is terribly ironic that funding is drying up now, precisely when our new understanding of the human genome promises to completely transform medical care.
We also risk losing a generation of young scientists, driven from the field by the severe difficulty of obtaining research grants. These problems represent a loss for all Americans.
The efforts of Senators Charles E. Schumer and Richard Blumenthal would be better spent leading the fight to restore funding to the National Institutes of Health and other critical sources of research support.
JAMES F. AMATRUDA
Dallas, Aug. 27, 2013
The writer is assistant professor of pediatrics, internal medicine and molecular biology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.
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