 The Commonwealth supports state and federal funding for tick-borne disease research. The Massachusetts legislature established a 21-member special commission to study the impacts of Lyme disease in Massachusetts, calling for greater efforts to educate the public, improve disease reporting and testing, along with mandated insurance coverage for treatment. I think it's hard to find a family in Massachusetts that hasn't been touched in some way. We know somebody who's had Lyme disease and we know it's grossly underreported and some doctors know how to treat it, some don't and I wanted to bring public awareness to it. Lyme disease is a multi-stage, multi-symptom bacterial infection transmitted by a tick bite. The illness was found for the first time in Lyme, Connecticut in 1975. The commission brought local experts together to help treat and prevent the spread of the disease. The Lyme disease is a preventable disease, all of these tick-borne diseases are preventable. Massachusetts is one of the top four states for Lyme cases, including New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine. The commission is working to raise awareness in schools and to enhance current Lyme surveillance methods of lab practices and diagnoses. We're trying to raise public awareness of Lyme disease and hopefully we can catch it sooner and start treatment sooner and people won't get a second. There were 2,651 cases reported and confirmed of Lyme disease in Massachusetts in 2011, which is an increase from previous years. The Lyme commission hopes to educate health officials to reduce the number of unreported cases in the state. Reporting from the statehouse, I'm Brooke Singman.