Lyme Disease more Common than Known

According to The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 300,000 Americans are suffering from Lyme disease each year and the toll is just increasing with each day.

The director of Lyme disease surveillance for the CDC, Mead, presented the preliminary estimate at an international conference in Boston on Lyme and other diseases that are tick-borne.

The CDC also stated that only 10th of the total cases of Lyme diseases get reported. Another thing that makes the scenario even more complicated is the number of unknown people being diagnosed with the disease who do not really have it.

Scientists from the CDC analysed insurance claims for 22 million people over a period of 6 years and surveyed labs that test for the presence of the disease in people. It has been said that there was nothing called Lyme disease a decade before now. Today, Lyme disease is one of the most widely prevalent diseases today. In several areas where the Lyme disease is prevalent, up to 30 per cent of deer ticks or black legged ticks carry the Lyme disease spirochete. This implies that humans who mostly venture outdoors such as in grassy areas.

Some of the symptoms of Lyme disease are headache, fatigue, joint and muscle aches, fatigue and fever. If these symptoms are not addressed sooner and if the patient does not take antibiotics on time i.e. within 72 hours. the infection is likely to spread to other parts of the body, causing cardiac, neurologic and diseases of the joint for several weeks or even months.


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