Researchers from five universities want to find out if restrictions related to COVID-19 have increased individuals’ time outdoors and, in turn, their risk of coming in contact with ticks and getting the diseases they carry. One of those is the blacklegged tick, or deer tick, which carries Lyme and other dangerous disease-causing germs.
To gather information, the team is asking people across the country to fill out a 10- to 15- minute survey to see if people’s outdoor habits have changed. Researchers from Hollins University, Duke University and Clemson University have joined the University of Georgia and URI as part of the research team.
University of Rhode Island Professor of Public Health Entomology Tom Mather said this is an important national survey to understand how stay at-home restrictions may change people’s outdoor behaviors and practices, putting them at greater risk for developing Lyme disease and other serious illnesses associated with tick bites. Findings may suggest that self-isolation restrictions need to come with increased tick prevention education.
Please take the survey through the following link: https://ugeorgia.ca1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_8kctqb7neC2Pyvj
Article: https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-05-youre-outdoors-covid-restrictions.html
Tick IPM Working Group 