Nantucket Cottage Hospital Considering Institute To Address Lone Star Tick Outbreak

While the alpha gal syndrome epidemic has yet to leave its mark on Nantucket the way it has on Martha’s Vineyard, Nantucket Cottage Hospital sees an opportunity to take a leadership role in the nationwide effort to develop vaccines and treatments to aid those who have been bitten by a lone star tick and had their lives altered in the blink of an eye.

Bruce Percelay, chairman of the Nantucket Cottage Hospital Board of Trustees, said Tuesday evening at a Land Bank Commission meeting that NCH is considering a Tick Institute where research will be conducted to learn more about AGS, but the proposal is in its early stages and the details are still evolving. He noted the proposal is subject to board approval. 

“The hospital is going to take a major leadership position in this," Percelay said. “We have been the epicenter of Lyme for 40 years. We are not the epicenter of the alpha gal, but we have the ability to do certain things that other places don't."

Primarily transmitted by lone star ticks, AGS causes an allergy to mammal meat and sometimes other products made from mammals, like milk. In the most serious cases, the allergy can be deadly.

On Martha’s Vineyard, there have been over 1,200 confirmed cases while on Nantucket, the hospital has only confirmed 26 cases. 

Percelay said the effort to combat AGS will be a multi-step process beginning with deer management, followed by educating the island community and making them aware of how they can protect themselves. He said the third element that needs to be focused on is treatment of the allergy. He acknowledged the problems facing the Vineyard at this time compared to Nantucket with alpha gal are of a larger scale, but added that it shouldn’t stop Nantucket from getting involved in developing a solution to the lone star ticks. 

Percelay is optimistic and hopeful that Nantucket will be able to get ahead of the issue. He credited the hospital for its work on the issue at the conclusion of his presentation.

“Thankfully we have a hospital like this,” Percelay said.

Disclosure: Bruce Percelay is the owner and publisher of N Magazine and Nantucket Current.