But these approaches are hardly around the corner. Part of the problem, scientists say, is that funding is scarce. The stereotype of Lyme and other US tick-borne diseases as primarily 'yuppie' illnesses does not help; Ostfeld says he has seen comments to this effect on reviews of his grant proposals. “They say something like, 'Is it really worth spending taxpayer dollars on a disease of the affluent in the northeastern United States, when there are so many diseases of people who live in poverty overseas?',” he says. “In one sense, I think that's a legitimate point, but in another, I think it underestimates the impact of this disease on a vast number of citizens, not all of whom are affluent, not even close.” Another potential reason for low funding is that in the United States Lyme and similar infections are only rarely fatal. Each year, more people in the United States are diagnosed with Lyme than with prostate cancer, but research funding for the latter from the National Institutes of Health was more than ten times that for Lyme in 2014.