With tick-borne diseases a growing matter of public health concern on the Vineyard, education and prevention are more important than ever, a leading expert said.

The recent death of a seasonal resident with an apparent case of tularemia has sparked renewed discussion about tick-borne illnesses.

A new team of scientists, including one from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), has begun arriving on the Island to investigate what could be another outbreak of pneumonic tularemia, and they are calling on landscapers to help.

Are rabbits really to blame for last summer's outbreak of tularemia and for what could be a repeat performance this year?

Sam Telford, a parasitologist from Harvard University and the newest member of a team sent here to investigate why such a rare disease has taken hold on the Vineyard, doesn't think so. What's more, Mr. Telford is just as skeptical about the prevailing theory that most victims breathed in air particles contaminated with the tularemia bacteria.

Scientists cast a wide net this week in the search for clues to why a rare disease called tularemia has a foothold on the Vineyard. They drew blood samples from landscapers, dragged for dog ticks and trapped rodents.

State health advisories warning people to wear dust masks when mowing the lawn or cutting brush may have put a dent in this summer's total for cases of tularemia, the rare disease that has an unexplained foothold on the Vineyard.

Tissue samples taken last September from a Chilmark skunk and a Katama rat tested positive for tularemia, the rare disease that infected 15 people on the Island last year, killing one man who did not seek medical attention in time.

A four-year-old boy from Newton is this year's first confirmed case of tularemia on the Vineyard, but state and Island health officials stopped far short of sounding an alarm this week over a new outbreak of the rare bacterial infection.

Pneumonic tularemia is back. Confirming this year's first case of the pneumonic form of the disease, public health officials said yesterday they are prepared to call in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to investigate.

A second round of blood tests has confirmed that two Island men who fell ill earlier this month with symptoms of pneumonia actually had the pneumonic form of tularemia, the rare bacterial disease that killed a Chilmark man almost two years ago.