There are approximately 30,000 reported cases of Lyme disease by state health departments annually in the United States. This is according to the CDC. However, it is suspected that this number could be as higher as 300,000 or more since only a small fraction of the illnesses are reported. Most of the cases of this disease are concentrated in the Northeast, and upper Midwest with over 96% of the cases confirmed in 14 states especially during spring and summer seasons when the ticks are most active. However, the latest study reveals that Ticks carrying Lyme disease are present in almost half of all the counties in the U.S.
Lyme disease is said to be a tick-borne disease spread through the bite of infected ticks. There are believed to be more than a hundred different types of ticks across the world carrying viruses, bacteria or other disease-causing pathogens. However, only a few are commonly known to carry the Lyme disease bacterium (Borrelia burgdorferi) and spread it to humans. These are;
- The black-legged (Ixodes scapularis) -This is the main vector for the disease in the northeastern, north-central as well as mid-Atlantic U.S
- The western black-legged tick (Ixodes pacificus) – This is responsible for the spread of the disease on the Pacific Coast
Others ticks such as the American dog tick, rocky mountain tick, and lone star tick among others are not yet known to transmit the disease.
These small crawling bugs, which are arachnids, get infected with the Lyme disease bacterium (Borrelia burgdorferi) after feeding on an infected animal, often a mouse among other rodents like lizards and squirrels, then later attaching themselves on the human body for a period more than 36 hours. Most of the people are infected when immature ticks (nymphs) bite because the ticks are too tiny to be noticed in their nymphal stage, unlike mature ticks which can be easily discovered and removed before the bacteria is transmitted.
References:
https://www.cdc.gov/lyme/stats/humancases.html
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