Penn State Extension has established a new vector-borne disease team that focuses on diseases transmitted by ticks and mosquitos.

To ensure that its efforts address community needs, the team has launched an online survey to help inform programming to educate the public about these diseases, how to prevent them, and how people can protect themselves.

The goal of the survey is to get a baseline of what Pennsylvania citizens know, what they want to know, and how they want to learn so the team can produce the most effective educational materials.

DEP and the Department of Health last year started a five-year tick surveillance program in the state to learn more about tick-borne illnesses. 

Pennsylvania ranks among the top three states with the highest rates of tick-borne disease. In 2018, for instance, Pennsylvania had the highest incidence of Lyme disease cases in the U.S.

Click Here to take the survey.  Visit Penn State Extension’s Ticks and Tick-borne Diseases In Pennsylvania for more background.

For more information on vector-borne diseases and their prevention, visit the Department of Health’s Lyme Disease webpage [ticks] and DEP’s West Nile Virus webpage [mosquitoes].

(Reprinted from DCNR’s April 15 Resource newsletter.  Click Here to sign up for your own copy.)

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