What is the incidence of Lyme disease in the US?
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What is the incidence of Lyme disease in the US?
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@bhanupriya Lyme disease is the most common vector-borne illness in the United States. Over 30,000 cases of Lyme disease are reported each year. In 2018, a total of 33,666 of Lyme disease—23,558 confirmed and 10,108 probable— were reported to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a 21% decrease from 2017 figures. Lyme disease led the list of a record number of tickborne disease cases that state and local health departments reported to the CDC In 2018.
From 2008 (when the national surveillance case definition was revised to include probable cases) to 2012, the incidence ranged from 9.86-12.71 cases per 100,000 population in the US. In 2015, Lyme disease was the sixth most common nationally notifiable disease.
The CDC tracks cases of Lyme disease by using strict surveillance criteria (not designed for diagnosis of individual cases). The incidence has been increasing over time; this is not simply a result of increased recognition, because in states that perform active surveillance, true incidence and geographic range have increased. The likely causes of this increase are expansion of deer herds and the expanded range of the vector.
Epidemiologic data suggest that the actual incidence of Lyme disease could be as much as 10 times higher than the CDC data indicate. This probably is a result of a restrictive case definition from the CDC, inevitable misdiagnosis, and the fact that physicians tend to underreport reportable diseases of all kinds. The CDC estimates that as many as 476,000 people may get Lyme disease each year in the United States.