Alameda County Lyme Disease Surveillance, 2001-2002

Annual Report 2001-2002, Alameda County Vector Control Services

As part of the Lyme disease surveillance program, District Staff identify ticks and mites, and will authorize testing for tick borne disease when appropriate. The District is currently investigating two human Lyme disease, case histories, from victims who are believed to have acquired the disease in Alameda County. The collections and surveillance will occur in the spring of 2002, when the adult and nymphal Ixodes pacificus ticks are most numerous. As part of the general tick borne disease surveillance program, 49 Western Black Legged Ticks were tested and none were positive for Borrelia burgdorferi. Vector control officers are being trained in tick surveillance techniques and equipment, and plans are in place to increase tick surveillance. Sixty-Five residents of Alameda County were bitten by ticks, and submitted them to the Alameda County Public Health Laboratory for Lyme disease testing. Some additional samples were sent to IgeneX, a private laboratory for PCR Testing. All of the twenty-four ticks acquired in Alameda County tested negative for the Lyme disease spirochete. Additional ticks, one from France and another from the east coast, tested positive for Borrelia burgdorferi, the bacteria responsible for Lyme disease.