Mannion launches tick, Lyme disease awareness tour

JAMESVILLE — State Sen. John W. Mannion has launched a Lyme and Tick Awareness Campaign and announced $50,000 in new funding to support the CNY Lyme & Tick-Borne Disease Alliance.

As part of his ongoing tour of 50th Senate District libraries, Mannion hosted an expert panel on Lyme disease and tick prevention and provided resources and information to parents and children at the Community Library of DeWitt and Jamesville, which also received $20,000 in state funding.

“As incidences of Lyme and other tick-borne diseases continue to rise, we must be vigilant, educated, and devote the resources necessary to protect New Yorkers,” Mannion said. “We are fortunate in Central New York to have the expertise of the CNY Lyme/Tick Alliance, the Vector Biology Lab at SUNY Upstate, and Integrative Medicine of CNY and I am grateful for their efforts to raise awareness and advance our understanding of tick-borne diseases.”

Mannion’s expert Lyme and tick panel included Royale Scuderi, executive director of the CNY Lyme & Tick-Borne Disease Alliance; Saravanan Thangamani, director of the SUNY Upstate Vector Biology Lab, and Heidi S. Puc, from Integrative Medicine of CNY.

“As a community-based nonprofit organization, the CNY Lyme & Tick-Borne Disease Alliance relies on donors and community funding to continue our work,” Scuderi said. “We are ever grateful to Senator Mannion for his continued support and assistance in securing NYS funding to grow our tick prevention education program.”

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