Washington, D.C. –  Rep. Frank Wolf (R-10th) will host another free forum to educate area residents about ticks and Lyme disease at 7 p.m on May 3, 2010 at Heritage High School in Loudoun County.  More than 300 people attended a similar forum in August of 2008 at the Loudoun County School Board office.

Speakers will include Dr. David Goodfriend, director of the Loudoun County Health Department, and Dr. Christine Coussens with the Institute of Medicine (IOM), the health arm of the National Academy of Sciences.  IOM is putting together a workshop to assess the state of the science of Lyme disease and other-tick borne diseases.  Coussens will report on the progress of the project.   Legislation approved in Congress last year requires both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to step up their research on Lyme disease.

The forum will address how to check and protect yourself from ticks, what to do if you find one, and the symptoms of acute Lyme disease and its treatment. A 13-minute version of the film “Under Our Skin” also will be shown.