"Invaders in your backyard: Understanding and preventing insect-borne illnesses" will be presented by Tandra Mitra, MD, an infectious disease specialist from Southcoast Hospitals

For Immediate Release	Contact: Joyce Faria Brennan
July 18, 2007	508-961-5270
	brennanj@southcoast.org
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WAREHAM, Mass. — In the South Coast region, the transmission of insect borne illnesses peaks during the late summer and early fall months, but can easily be prevented by taking simple precautions.

Tandra Mitra, MD, an infectious disease specialist from Southcoast Hospitals, will discuss a number of insect-borne illnesses that are endemic to the South Coast region including tick-borne diseases such as Lyme disease, Erlichiosis and Babesiosis, and mosquito-borne diseases such as Eastern Equine Encephalitis (EEE) and West Nile Virus, at a free lecture in Wareham.

"Invaders in your backyard: Understanding and preventing insect-borne illnesses" will be held at Wareham Town Hall, 54 Marion Road, Wareham, on Thursday, August 2, from 6:30 to 8 p.m. This public information session is opened to the public and is co-sponsored by Southcoast Hospitals and the Wareham Board of Health.

"Residents need to be aware of these diseases and take some simple steps to prevent them," Dr. Mitra said. "Although the consequences of insect-borne illnesses can be very serious, there is much that the public can do to protect themselves and their families."

Insect-borne illnesses can cause serious health problems and, in rare cases, even death. According to Dr. Mitra, Massachusetts is currently in a cyclical outbreak of the EEE virus. Although extremely rare, it was responsible for five deaths in Massachusetts last year, three of them in towns on the South Coast.

The South Coast also has one of the highest incidences of Lyme disease in Massachusetts with 468 reported cases in Plymouth and Bristol counties in 2005, the most recent year for which data is available. Plymouth County has the fourth highest incidence of Lyme disease in the state, preceded only by counties on Cape Cod and the islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket.

Dr. Mitra will also be available to answer questions. Fact sheets and information from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health will be provided.

About Southcoast

Southcoast Health System, a not-for-profit charitable organization, is a community based health delivery system with multiple access points, offering an integrated continuum of advanced health services throughout Southeastern Massachusetts and East Bay, Rhode Island. It includes Southcoast Hospitals Group, formed in 1996 from the merger of Charlton Memorial Hospital in Fall River, St. Luke's Hospital in New Bedford and Tobey Hospital in Wareham.

Southcoast has more than 40 ancillary facilities, including the Southcoast Health Van, home health care, hospice and infusion services, numerous outpatient medical services, an assisted living facility and a wellness center. For more information visit www.southcoast.org.

Southcoast is one of three community hospitals approved by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health to perform open heart surgery and primary angioplasty beginning in Spring 2002.

Media Contact

Joyce Faria Brennan
Phone: 508-961-5270
Pager: 508-387-9605
Fax: 508-961-5876
brennanj@southcoast.org