Gillibrand Pitches $200M to Fight Rise in Lyme Disease

U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) proposed allocating $200 million to fund research to combat a rise in Lyme disease and other tick-borne illnesses, she announced during a press conference in Quogue on Tuesday.

Lyme disease and other tick-borne illnesses have continued to pose a risk to all New Yorkers, specifically in Suffolk County, which recorded the largest number of Lyme disease cases in the country from 2019-2022, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“It is a critical health emergency,” Gillibrand said at the Quogue Wildlife Refuge. “Despite the serious nature of these diseases, federal research and prevention efforts have been historically underfunded. For a community like New Yorkers that have so much risk, we have to be vigilant.”

Lyme disease is a bacterial infection transmitted to humans or animals through a bite from a deer tick and has significant impacts on the nervous system, joints, skin, and cardiovascular functions. New York was revealed as the number one state for all reported cases of Lyme disease in 2022, with more than 16,000 confirmed cases.

To combat this, Gillibrand aims to designate $30 million for the Department of Health and Human Services in hopes for a national strategy, $30 million to the CDC for continued research on Lyme disease, $9 million to support the Department of Defense’s Tick-Borne Diseases Research, and $130 million to the National Institute of Health.

Olivia Abrams, Junior Board Member of Project Lyme and CEO and Founder of TiCK MiTT, a safe and chemical-free tick removal mitt, was among those who joined the senator to advocate for her funding.

“As a lifelong New Yorker who was diagnosed with Lymes disease at seven years old, I know firsthand the importance of early protection and effective prevention,” said Abrams. “Suffolk County has been significantly impacted by ticks with New York recently seeing over 146% spike in Lyme disease cases in just one year.”