As temperatures continue to rise, so too will cases of Lyme disease and other tick-born illnesses. Therefore a search to stop its spread and treat its symptoms has picked up some urgency — and now offers a glimmer of hope.
Warmer weather give nasty little vectors like the deer ticks that carry the disease a longer time period to spread it. The ticks carry the disease from their "reservoir" of small woodland mammals into human hosts by biting them. Although it is most prevalent in wooded areas, the deer tick also can live in long grassy areas.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recorded 89,000 Lyme disease cases in 2023 based on reports from state health departments. Other methods that track treatment for the disease’s symptoms put the number of cases at 476,000. The actual number of Lyme’s disease cases is likely somewhere in between.
