As the Vineyard’s war against ticks continues to wage on, one of its dedicated soldiers is exiting the battle due to a lack of funding.

Lea Hamner, a Chilmark-based epidemiologist who joined the Island’s tick prevention program in 2023, will soon be stopping her work because the grant she was paid through has been almost completely expended. Officials knew this day was coming, but they lamented losing her contributions, which have been a boost at a time when the Island deals with Lyme disease, alpha-gal syndrome, babesiosis and other tick-borne illnesses.

“[Lea’s] been pivotal in the work we’ve been doing here,” said Patrick Roden-Reynolds, the Vineyard’s tick biologist and one of the only other people whose role is dedicated to deal with the tick problem.

Ms. Hamner has worked about one day a week for the Vineyard, working on the disease side of the tick equation. She expects she will be able to continue to work through the end of next month, but hopes she can continue in some capacity.

“There’s a lot I would love to do,” Ms. Hamner said. “I live here and suffer the impacts of the tick-born disease epidemic, too. I’d like to be part of the solution.”

Ms. Hamner works for the Barnstable County health department, and was brought on to help the Vineyard with its rising rate of tick-borne illnesses through a federal government. The grant from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention was initially slated to be used to help with contract tracing of Covid-19, but in recent years the Island had expanded it to help with other diseases.

Ms. Hamner, who moved to the Vineyard from Washington state, has been working on research around alpha-gal syndrome and other maladies caused by ticks.

Lea Hamner joined the Island’s tick prevention program in 2023.

Ray Ewing

Lea Hamner joined the Island’s tick prevention program in 2023.

Ray Ewing

The grant funding was supposed to run through June 2026, but because of the nature of the tick season, much of Ms. Hamner’s work was frontloaded to coincide with when the help was needed most.

Marina Lent, the Aquinnah health agent who administered the grant, said the loss is huge for the Island, and she is working on a way to get more funding to bring Ms. Hamner back.

“She is a professional that could be working at the state or federal level in a heartbeat,” Ms. Lent said. “It’s a match made in heaven, except for the budget.”

During her tenure, Ms. Hamner helped run an alpha-gal support group, monitored tick-borne disease trends and engaged state and national researchers to help study the Island’s tick problems.

Prior to working on the Island, she worked as an epidemiologist in Skagit County, Wash., navigating the Covid-19 pandemic and publishing landmark research around airborne transmission of the disease.

Ms. Hamner wants to continue her Vineyard tick work because of how large the problem is, and how busy Island town health departments are. Local boards of health in Massachusetts have to handle a wide range of issues, from septic and restaurant inspections to tracking dozens of infectious diseases.

That leaves them with little bandwidth to handle tick-borne illnesses and allergies such as alpha-gal.

“Could I fill a full-time job doing tick work on Martha’s Vineyard? You bet I could,” Ms. Hamner said. “It really is an all consuming problem on this Island.”

When Mr. Roden-Reynolds talks with members of the public, tick issues are often one of the highest public health priorities. He said people might not realize there are only a handful of people on the Vineyard who are tasked with the epidemic.

“We would love to do more work and expand these programs but it takes more staff,” he said. “A lot of it boils down to who. Who is going to run these programs?”

Ms. Lent is working on creative ways to get more funding for public health work around ticks. Almost everyone now knows someone with Lyme or alpha-gal, not to mention babesiosis and other diseases, she said, and high-profile press coverage in the New York Times and other outlets has also boosted awareness.

“I’m hoping that translates into a willingness to support,” Ms. Lent said. “We need whatever we can get from the state; we need towns to start thinking about how important this is.”

Time is also of the essence, Ms. Lent said, and she wants to get efforts moving soon before the crisis ratchets up further.

“It’s here with us. It’s getting worse,” she said. “I hope we all pull together on this.”