According to an article, Lyme disease is spreading rampantly and is now found in 49 US States.
“Dr. Harriet Kotsoris, neurologist and medical advisor for Time for Lyme, a research, education, and advocacy group based in Greenwich, CT. “It is the most commonly reported vector-borne illness in the United States and has been documented in 49 states.”
Dr. Kotsoris also notes that Lyme Disease is wildly under-reported for many reasons. First, only a couple of tests are recognized to report a case. These tests can have a large number of false positives. Another reason the cases are under-reported is that the symptoms for Lyme disease are so similar to the symptoms for other diseases. Also, because people are trained to look for the “bull’s eye” rash, many people miss a tick bite waiting for that rash that doesn’t happen in every case.
What are some of the ramifications of this? Since the disease is under-reported, it’s therefore under-funded. People should be trained to look for and recognize the symptoms in order to correctly and concretely diagnose and confirm a Lyme case. According to the CDC, the symptoms include fatigue, chills, fever, headache, and muscle and joint aches, and swollen lymph nodes. This list does look very similar to the symptoms for the common flu. If you have these symptoms and they persist, you may want to ask your doctor about the possibility of Lyme disease.