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Tuesday, May 27, 2014

9 Signs You Have Lyme Disease — and Don't Know It

Summer is the season of Lyme disease, a bacterial infection transmitted to humans through the bites of blacklegged ticks.

Lyme is the most commonly reported vector-borne illness in the country. More than 20,000 cases are reported to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention every year, but experts believe upwards of 300,000 individuals are infected annually. The CDC reports that 95 percent of cases in 2012 were concentrated to 13 states in the Northeast and Upper Midwest, where the tick is native.

But like many insect-carried diseases, Lyme is spreading thanks to climate change. Warmer weather across the continent has spread the home turf of Lyme-carrying ticks, numerous studies have found, including a recent one published in Environmental Health Perspectives (PDF).

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5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you for posting this. I hope everyone reads it. I just got a tick bite on Monday. It is red and swollen, so I am starting antibiotics today! There is an Eastern Shore Lymes Diease Association in Salisbury, with a Facebook page and monthly meetings with great speakers. They are a great reference for folks with questions.

angeleyes40 said...

Good luck finding a doctor to treat chronic Lymes Disease in the area. They just don't believe that it really exists. They would rather treat the symptoms than to actually treat the cause.

Anonymous said...

Because chronic doesn't exist. It's an excuse pill poppers use for meds and pseudo docs use for profit.

Anonymous said...

Really, it is because of the global warming hoax. Will these global warming people stop at nothing. What is the next warning, I know PMS is the next thing to be caused by global warming.

Anonymous said...

There are way too many people with weak immune systems.Bolster that and a lot of this nonsense can be avoided.