CDC says Lyme cases reached all-time high in 2015
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has announced that there were 38, 069 reported cases of Lyme disease in the US in 2015—an all-time high. The agency has long said that the true number of diagnosed cases is ten times the number of officially reported cases—which would put its 2015 estimate at more than 380,000.
According to the CDC’s just-released Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, Pennsylvania had the most reported cases of Lyme disease, with more than 90.000 cases. The report also said that almost half of all reported cases were from just three states: Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York.
Because different localities report Lyme numbers differently, the CDC does not include all numbers turned over to them by local and state governments. For instance, many counties in the state of New York provide estimated numbers based on sampling. Because the CDC does not accept such figures, not all New York counties are represented in the CDC’s final tally.
Click here to read the CDC’s MMWR. (Because this document has information about many diseases, we recommend you click on the link and then do a search for the word “Lyme.”)