Thursday marked the official launch of Tick Free MV, an organization of concerned year-round and seasonal residents looking to improve public health on the Vineyard by reducing its tick population through various initiatives.

Lea Hamner, a Chilmark-based epidemiologist who joined the Island’s tick prevention program in 2023, will soon be stopping her work because the grant she was paid through has been almost completely expended.

A team of researchers at the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School announced last week that they have teamed up with a pharmaceutical company to shepherd a Lyme antibody to phase two and three trials, the next step before getting approval with the federal government. 

Island doctors, researchers and biologists are redoubling tick education efforts amid the growing concerns about the disease-carrying arachnids.

Researchers from across New England have been surveying thousands of people and studying lawns in search of one thing: is tick control helping? 

After screening nearly 500 FDA-approved compounds, researchers determined that piperacillin cured mice infected with Lyme disease at a dosage 100-fold lower than doxycycline.