The high risk of acquiring tick-borne diseases by outdoor workers is well documented. Workers most at risk include, foresters, park rangers, land surveyors and other outdoor workers have frequent exposure to tick-infested habitats. Many North Carolina state employees with outdoor occupations report multiple tick bites each year, which indicates that existing tick preventive strategies may be ineffective. The principal goal of this study is to assess whether the use of long-lasting permethrin impregnated uniforms can reduce the number of tick bites sustained by North Carolina outdoor workers.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
PREVENTION
Masking
DOUBLE
Enrollment
159
Uniforms treated with permethrin according to proprietary process used by Insect Shield, Inc.
Gillings School of Global Public Health
Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States
Work Related Tick Bites
Tick bites are defined as ticks attached to or embedded in the skin
Time frame: Weekly for two years
Seroconversion Against a Tick-borne Illness
We will define seroconversion as one in which there is a 4-fold change in Immunoglobulin G class antibody titer between sera at enrollment, sera obtained after one year and/or sera obtained at study's end or between acute and convalescent sera for participants developing an acute illness. The antigens that will be used in the serologic assays include Ehrlichia chaffeensis (which would also detect antibodies to E. ewingii and Anaplasma phagocytophilum) and Rickettsia rickettsii (which would also detect antibodies to other spotted fever group rickettsiae).
Time frame: Upon enrollment, after the first year, and after the second year
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