Lyme Disease Education and SciTech

Ticks carrying Lyme disease bacteria are endemic to southwestern Pennsylvania. The first ever AmeriCorps member to have served with the Bureau of Assessment Statistics and Epidemiology  at the Allegheny County Health Department served as the principal investigator for the Lyme disease pilot project in 2014-2015 year. This project was new and had never been done before. It consisted of Lyme disease prevention through education, Lyme disease surveillance (collecting clinical symptoms data and lab test results) and accurately classifying cases according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention recommendations.  

Allegheny County has a population of approximately 1.2 million residents. After this pilot project came to an end, there were a total of 862 confirmed cases within the county.  Many people are not educated about Lyme disease and they are less likely to know the early symptoms of the disease without the appearance of erythema migrans commonly known as “bull’s eye rash”. With this information in mind, the health department has partnered with many organizations and has made a presence at community health fairs and other community events to educate residents on Lyme disease prevention. One of these many community events is SciTech days at the Carnegie Science center.
SciTech days is a year round initiative that takes place twice a year in November and March. This exciting experience is for all ages to promote scientific and technology literacy to create a knowledgeable public. The goal of SciTech is to inspire the general public and a diverse audience of students, middle and high schools to participate in science and technology development to benefit the community and themselves. This event attracts many exhibitors and visitors to motivate them to explore innovations and issues regarding science and technology. One of the key purposes of this event is to have visitors explore topics and participate in public discussion.

The Health Department through this partnership with the Carnegie science center has been an exhibitor for a few years and this has afforded them a platform to reach the community for Lyme disease education and prevention.  The students and visitors are always eager to learn more about Lyme disease. This four day event (March 1-4) broadened the discussion on prevention methods and the need for further education and awareness of early and late symptoms. During those 4 days we reached over 300-500 visitors. This partnership has been a success and visitors are always pleased to see the health department at these events.

Lastly, the county health department is currently conducting Lyme disease surveillance for the 2015-2016 years and will soon release the total number of confirmed cases within Allegheny County.