HEALTH - Lyme Disease on the Rise

"Dramatically Revised Lyme Disease Statistics Raise New Questions About Risk" PBS Newshour 8/20/2013

Excerpt

JEFFREY BROWN (Newshour):  Lyme disease was first identified in the 1970s, but it now turns out that it's much more common than previously estimated, about ten times more.

The CDC reported this week that an estimated 300,000 Americans get the tick-borne disease every year.  Symptoms can include fatigue, fever, skin rashes, and a headache.  Left untreated, it can lead to arthritis, facial palsy, and problems with the nervous system.  The number of cases has been increasing.  Most are concentrated in the Northeast, with 96 percent of them in 13 states.

There's also been a long-running debate around treatment for the disease.

And for all this, we turn to Beth Daley of The Boston Globe.  She has been working on a series about the disease and its impact.