Joshua Krause -It wasn’t that long ago that if you mentioned “Lyme disease” to someone, they probably wouldn’t know what you were talking about. That someone might have even been your doctor, or it may have been you. Without knowing what it entails or how it’s caused, you could be carrying the worsening symptoms and not know why your health is failing in so many ways.

Things have improved in recent years but not for any good reason. The public is more aware of Lyme disease now than they ever have before, but only because the spread of this tick borne disease has reached epidemic levels. This is especially so on the east coast, where Lyme has become downright prolific.

It’s not clear why – experts say climate change, forest regrowth and the spread of deer might all be factors. What is clear is that many more people than before need to watch out for the ticks that carry the infection, CDC says.

“Over time, the number of counties identified as having high incidence of Lyme disease in the northeastern states increased more than 320 percent: from 43 (1993-1997) to 90 (1998-2002) to 130 (2003-2007) to 182 (2008-2012),” Kiersten Kugeler of the CDC’s center in Forth Collins, Colorado, and colleagues write in their report.

The northern coast of New Jersey is no longer a hotbed of new Lyme infections, but now east-central Pennsylvania is, they said.

While it’s impossible to know what is causing it to spread, it’s certainly having a catastrophic effect on public health. For now it’s hard to say how many people are afflicted with this disease every year, but we do know how much it’s costing us. Continue reading →