Since the 1970s, when Yale researchers first identified Lyme disease -- so named for the town of Lyme, Connecticut, where it was first discovered -- the condition has become a national public health problem, with more than 50,000 cases now reported annually to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. While they occur most frequently in the suburban and rural regions of the Northeast, cases of Lyme disease have been reported from 46 states in the nation, as well as in Europe and northern Asia.
The controversies and misunderstandings concerning the nature of Lyme disease, its diagnosis and treatment, and the ways the condition can be prevented are the focus of a small exhibit now on display on the second floor of the Peabody Museum of Natural History.
The display features the results of the most current research at the Yale School of Medicine and other academic institutions, and answers such questions as: Where did Lyme disease come from? Why does it occur primarily in the Northeast? How do people get Lyme disease? What are the symptoms? And, what should you do if you get the condition?
The display explores the following themes: the life cycle and ecology of the deer tick, Ixodes Scapularis, the black-legged parasite that transmits the disease from animal to human hosts; the ecology and biology of the disease-causing bacterium in wildlife, ticks and the human body; the environmental changes -- such as the regrowth and expansion of hardwood forests and the dramatic increase in deer populations -- that have caused the emergence of Lyme disease in the United States; and the appropriate preventative and treatment measures recommended by the scientific community.
Two research scientists in the department of epidemiology and public health are serving as curators of the exhibit: Durland Fish and Leonard E. Munstermann, who is also associate curator of entomology at the Peabody Museum. In addition to the medical school, they have drawn on such academic and scientific resources as the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies; the Center for Earth Observation at the Yale Institute for Biospheric Studies; the biological and zoological collections of the Peabody Museum; Pfizer, Inc.; and the Connecticut Agricultural Experimental Station.
The Peabody Museum of Natural History, located at 170 Whitney Ave., is open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Saturday and noon-5 p.m. on Sunday. Admission is $5 and $3 for children ages 3-15 and senior citizens age 65 and older. For more information, call 432-5050.