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Lyme Disease And The United States

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Lyme Disease in Alabama

Introduction

In 2010 there were 2 confirmed cases of Lyme disease in Alabama, which continued to rise until 2014 with the last reported number of 64 confirmed cases for that year alone. In September 2015 the Centers for Disease Control revised their estimates indicating that it is believed that there were more than 10 times more cases in the United States than the 30,000 reported. Lyme disease is the fastest growing transmittable disease in the United States. It is hard to believe a disease this infectious was only discovered four decades ago.

The History of Lyme disease

Lyme disease was unknown to people in the early 1970s and may still be unknown if not for two mothers in Lyme, Connecticut. The mothers both noticed their kids and others in their town had the same symptoms and started trying to figure out what was wrong. The medical field began studying the groups symptoms to try and find a cause. By the mid 1970’s the new disease was called Lyme but no one knew what was causing it. In 1981 scientist Willy Burgdorfer who studied Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever started to study Lyme disease. He found the cause of the disease in a deer tick. He had discovered a bacterium called a spirochete. In 1982 the medical field named the spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi in honor of his discovery.

Threat

The threat of Lyme disease is an ever growing concern especially due to the fact that late stage Lyme has no cure and early stages are hard to diagnose. The

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