A rise in tick-borne illnesses in Pittsfield has health officials concerned. iBerkshires.com reports the city has seen a rise in tick-borne illnesses including Lyme disease. So far this year, Pittsfield has had more cases of anaplasmosis and almost as many occurrences of Lyme disease- when compared to all of last year.
Stephen Rich, the director of the "Tick Report" service at UMass Amherst, said he's seeing an increase in ticks being sent into the lab from Pittsfield residents, and elsewhere. But, he said the influx does not mean there are more ticks this season, rather it is possible more people are aware of them.
"We still see lots of ticks this year, we saw lots of ticks last year, we don't want to make an assumption that the fact that we see more ticks this year than last year means that there are necessarily more in nature," said Rich.
According to the "Tick Report" out of 30 ticks tested from Pittsfield, about 40 percent tested positive for Lyme disease.