ARMONK - The weather page of many newspapers has long had information about the scourges of pollen and smog.
Now a new index is available to help people in the Lower Hudson Valley plan their outdoor activities, one that charts ticks.
Scientists at Fordham University's biological field station in Armonk, the Louis Calder Center, developed the index to alert hikers and others enjoying nature when to be especially on guard about deer ticks to avoid Lyme disease.
"We felt like it was an opportunity to take some of the data we collect and improve people's ability to gauge their risk," said Thomas Daniels, an associate research scientist at the Calder Center's Vector Ecology Lab, who developed the index with Richard Falco, also a researcher in the lab.
The lab has been collecting tick data for more than 20 years and can compare the new numbers to past years to give a sense of the population levels.
July is always a high risk time, but the risk varies throughout the season and from year to year, Daniels said.
This weekend is a 10, the highest risk on the 1 to 10 scale.
Each level comes with a warning to take precautions but a 10 means, "If you're thinking of taking a hike, consider going to a movie instead," the tick index Web site says.
"That's scary, that's very scary. I'm wearing long pants," said Tom Regan, 61, who lives in Pennsylvania, but was camping at Ward Pound Ridge with his brother when told of the high number.
In May, June and July, the tick nymphs are active and as many as 30 percent are infected, Daniels said.
The tiny nymphs, which hang on brush or tall grass waiting for something warm to walk by, are particularly hard to see and remove, making it the worst time for Lyme disease.
Adult ticks, which also can be infected, are more active in the early spring and fall.
Dr. Gary Wormser, the chief of infectious diseases at New York Medical College and Westchester Medical Center, said cases of Lyme already have turned up this year, though it's early to say whether it's a bad or a standard year.
A patient recently brought in one tick she had found on her body but they found two more she hadn't noticed, he said.
An index, Wormser said, could help people understand that the risk of Lyme isn't uniform as long as they never assume the risk goes away and let their guard down.
"Always during the summer and spring and early fall there is some risk," he said.
That continuing threat is always in the mind of avid hikers like Richard Sumner, 70, of Haverstraw, treasurer of the Adirondack Mountain Club Ramapo chapter.
For casual hikers the index might be useful by making them more careful, he said, but for frequent hikers, "it probably wouldn't have any practical effect."
"Even if the threat is low, the threat is never gone in this area," Sumner said.
Putnam had 132 confirmed cases of Lyme in 2007, according to the county Department of Health, and the numbers have ranged as high as 300 during the past five years.
Westchester had 335 cases in 2007 and Rockland had 200, according to their health departments.
The numbers of cases can be affected by things such as weather and the population of the animals the ticks feed on.
Fordham scientists collect ticks from a site in the woods at the Calder Center where they have taken samples since the mid-1980s.
They sample there two or three times a week from about late March until the last week of November.
The information, Daniels said, gives a good indication of tick activity in the entire Lower Hudson Valley.
Alec Benoit, a 20-year-old seasonal worker at Ward Pound Ridge who grew up in Cross River, has had Lyme disease twice.
Both times the first sign was a sore neck, which sent him to the doctor.
Another indicator is a bull's-eye rash around a bite.
"You run into ticks a lot around here," he said. "I run into them a few times a week."
A forestry student at Paul Smith's College in the Adirondacks, Benoit said the index is a great idea.
"I think the more you know, the better off you are," he said.
Ollie Simpson, a volunteer supervisor with the New York-New Jersey Trail Conference in charge of part of the Appalachian Trail in Dutchess County, often walks off trail to monitor the boundaries of the protected lands.
She felt weak and fluish the one time she was diagnosed with Lyme three years ago.
This year alone she has found four ticks on herself; they look like poppy seeds with legs, she said.
"I'm not going to let it stop me from going out and doing things I enjoy," she said.
But Daniels said he hopes the index will make people more vigilant while they are out there.
"If you're going to implement these measures, now is the time to do it," he said.
-------------------- My Lyme dx:11/05. My Mom's Lyme dx:5/16. ISO ASAP-Lyme Literate Dr & Neurologist-Prefer IL, IN, KY, MO, OH, TN. Can travel farther. Finances limited. Prefer Drs take Medicare or Payments. Need great list to find best fit. Tyvm. Posts: 701 | From Owensboro, KY | Registered: Sep 2005
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bettyg
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at least they are getting the word out there for HIKERS!!
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Let's just hope it's not going in one ear and out the other!
Love, Light, & Health, Jennie
-------------------- My Lyme dx:11/05. My Mom's Lyme dx:5/16. ISO ASAP-Lyme Literate Dr & Neurologist-Prefer IL, IN, KY, MO, OH, TN. Can travel farther. Finances limited. Prefer Drs take Medicare or Payments. Need great list to find best fit. Tyvm. Posts: 701 | From Owensboro, KY | Registered: Sep 2005
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