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Category: Health & Fitness : Lyme Disease
I am introducing a series of articles related to Lyme Disease (LD) and its vector, commonly known as the deer tick. (A vector is a carrier, usually an arthropod, that transfers an infective agent from one host to another.) I think this topic will be of value to campers, hikers, hunters and others who may have exposure to the tick. In my personal observation and in talking with hunters, ticks were out early this year and there seems to be a lot of them. I have pulled numerous, numerous ticks off of my dog and often there is a tick on top of a tick. (I am calling them aggressive.) Here's to your health!
Lyme Disease, also known in the medical community as "Borrelia burgdorferi" infection or Lyme burreliosis, is a multisystem inflammatory disease spread by the bite of deer ticks infected with the spirochete "Borrelia burgdorferi". Often symptoms are so vague that it is initially misdiagnosed.
The first identified case occurred about 40 years ago in Lyme, CT after an unusual clustering of arthritis in children was noted. The geographic range of LD is expanding in the U.S. However, five states (CT, RI, NY, NJ, PA) accounted for approximately 85% of the 16,461 cases reported to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in 1996. Lyme Disease commonly occurs in three areas of the U.S.: The Northeast (from MA to MD), the Midwest (WI & MN), and occasionally the West (northern CA & OR). Cases are reported in big cities as well as other parts of the country because people travel to endemic areas, become infected, and return home.
Outside the U.S., most cases are reported in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France and Sweden in Europe, and in Japan and China. Different species of the tick cause the illness in the western U.S. and outside the U.S. There have been reports of a disease similar to LD occurring in Missouri, but possibly resulting from the bite of a different tick.
Other Articles in this Category
Lyme Disease: Tick Removal
by Kacy
Lyme Disease: How to Prevent It
by Kacy
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