Lyme Disease Skyrockets

The Lyme disease epidemic in the U.S. is worse—much worse—than doctors and public health officials have feared. Last year, the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention reported some 30,000 cases of Lyme disease. That number has exploded to an estimated 300,000 cases of Lyme annually, the agency reported last week. It’s not that the disease suddenly spread, but that it’s been undercounted in the past. Scientists have long suspected that Lyme disease, the number one vector-borne illness in the U.S., is significantly underreported. “We know that routine surveillance only gives us part of the picture and that the true number of illnesses is much greater,” says Paul S. Mead, chief of epidemiology and surveillance activity for CDC’s Lyme disease program. Previous estimates of disease incidence have been based only on cases reported by doctors. For its new estimate, CDC analyzed data from three ongoing studies. The first study involves 22 ...