{"id":141020,"date":"2022-06-23T17:02:18","date_gmt":"2022-06-23T22:02:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2022\/06\/lyme-disease-is-even-more-common-than-experts-realized-new-research-finds"},"modified":"2022-06-23T17:02:18","modified_gmt":"2022-06-23T22:02:18","slug":"lyme-disease-is-even-more-common-than-experts-realized-new-research-finds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2022\/06\/lyme-disease-is-even-more-common-than-experts-realized-new-research-finds","title":{"rendered":"Lyme Disease Is Even More Common Than Experts Realized, New Research Finds"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/lyme-disease-is-even-more-common-than-experts-realized-new-research-finds.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s extremely important to check yourself for ticks this summer.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>Up to 14.5% of the global population may have already had <a href=\"https:\/\/www.self.com\/story\/at-home-lyme-disease-test?intcid=inline_amp\" target=\"_blank\">Lyme disease<\/a>, according to a new meta-analysis published in <a href=\"https:\/\/gh.bmj.com\/content\/bmjgh\/7\/6\/e007744.full.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><em>BMJ Global Health<\/em><\/a>. The researchers behind the report analyzed 89 previously published studies to calculate the figure, which sheds a harrowing light on the worldwide toll of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.self.com\/story\/non-lyme-tick-borne-illnesses?intcid=inline_amp\" target=\"_blank\">tick-borne illness<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>From 1991 to 2018, the incidence of Lyme disease in the United States nearly doubled, according to data from the United States Environmental Protection Agency (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.epa.gov\/climate-indicators\/climate-change-indicators-lyme-disease#:~:text=The%20incidence%20of%20Lyme%20disease, 2018%20(see%20Figure%201).\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">EPA<\/a>). In 1991, there were nearly four reported cases per 100,000 people; that number jumped to about seven cases per 100,000 people by 2018. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/lyme\/stats\/humancases.html#:~:text=There%20is%20no%20way%20of, and%20treated%20for%20Lyme%20disease.\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)<\/a> estimates that about 470,000 Americans are diagnosed and treated for Lyme disease each year.<\/p>\n<p>The bacterium that most commonly causes Lyme, <em>Borrelia burgdorferi<\/em>, is transmitted to humans via the bite of an infected black-legged tick, also known as a deer tick. These especially tiny ticks are often found in the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, Upper Midwest, and Pacific Coast of the United States, per the U.S. National Library of Medicine (<a href=\"https:\/\/medlineplus.gov\/lymedisease.html#\" class=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">NLM<\/a>). Once a person has been infected, they may develop short-term, flu-like symptoms including fever, headache, and fatigue, as well as a signature bull\u2019s-eye-shaped rash that appears in up to 80% of Lyme disease cases, according to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/lyme\/signs_symptoms\/index.html\" class=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">CDC<\/a>. In rare instances, when Lyme is left untreated, a person may experience long-term, potentially life-threatening complications, including joint pain, severe headaches and neck stiffness, heart issues, and inflammation of the brain and spinal cord, among others.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s extremely important to check yourself for ticks this summer. Up to 14.5% of the global population may have already had Lyme disease, according to a new meta-analysis published in BMJ Global Health. The researchers behind the report analyzed 89 previously published studies to calculate the figure, which sheds a harrowing light on the worldwide [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":630,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-141020","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biotech-medical","category-neuroscience"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141020","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/630"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141020"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141020\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}