New tick disease center opening in Southampton
Stony Brook Southampton Hospital’s Regional Tick-Borne Disease Center opens next week.
The center, the first and only dedicated tick clinic in the Northeast, opens Monday, August 14 in the Hampton Bays Atrium and is clinically supported by physicians from Stony Brook Medicine’s Meeting House Lane Medical Practice and Stony Brook Children’s Hospital.
The on-site team of infectious disease specialists will treat children and adults for tick bites and diagnose tick-borne illnesses, by appointment only, according to a hospital statement.
Patients will have the potential to participate in Stony Brook Medicine’s research studies. The clinic is conveniently located steps away from Stony Brook Southampton Hospital’s lab services and blood drawing. In addition to tick removal and disease diagnosis, the clinic will provide counseling on tick-bite prevention, tick identification, free tick removal kits and reference handbooks.
“This year is one of the worst for tick bites and tick-borne disease illnesses,” Dr. Sharon Nachman, chief of the Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at Stony Brook Children’s Hospital, said in the statement. The hospital was a study site for a pediatric study for a Phase 3 trial on a Lyme disease vaccine.
“A dedicated tick clinic is important to the health of our community and reinforces Stony Brook Medicine’s commitment to bring world-class healthcare, driven by evidence-based research, to the East End,” Nachman added.
Since 2015, Stony Brook Southampton Hospital’s Regional Tick-Borne Disease Resource Center has been operating a free tick helpline, which has answered more than 5,500 tick calls.
The center’s suite was gifted for 10 years by Brian Kelly of East End Tick and Mosquito Control, and features a reception area, two exam rooms, two private offices for consults and a large nurse’s station.
Stony Brook Southampton Hospital Regional Tick-Borne Disease Resource Center is funded exclusively through charitable gifts, with major support coming from The Island Outreach Foundation, whose grants have sustained the center for the last five years.
