Lyme has been in the UK for a long time

Lyme has been in the UK for a long time, as you can see from this letter to the British Medical Journal in 1978.

And Thetford Forest was a hot spot before the New Forest!

BRITISH MEDICAL JOURNAL 14 OCTOBER 1978
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1608178/pdf/brmedj00148-0055b.pdf

Erythema chronicum migrans in Britain

SIR,-Further to your recent leading article "Ticks, tourists, and encephalitis" (26 August, p 587), we would like to report six cases of erythema chronicum migrans (ECM) seen in that area of East Anglia served by the Cambridge department of dermatology in the past three years. ECM is a clinically distinctive variant of the rather heterogeneous group of annular erythemas but its aetiology remains obscure, although it is generally considered to be due to a tick-borne non-bacterial infectious agent.

Until recently cases of ECM originating outside Scandinavia and certain other parts of Europe were rare and most European reports incriminate the tick Ixodes ricinus as vector.

All the patients, four of whom were male adults, gave similar histories. An irritable primary reaction would be followed by the appearance of. an erythematous, slightly indurated ring which' slowly extended with central clearing over successive months until' they sought treatment. The width of the erythematous band at the time of examination was' approximately 2 cm and the diameter of the largest of the ring's was, about 75 cm. Clearance occurred within a few days of starting a course of oral penicillin. Little or no systemic upset was reported by our patients, although' one had a penicillin reaction. Routine blood counts were normal and no elevation of Weil-Felix titres was detected. Biopsy was performed on one lesion and a mild perivascular lymphocytic infiltrate was seen in the mid-dermis.

Rickettsiae, spirochaetes, and viruses have all at times been incriminated as infecting organisms and perhaps the speed of resolution following treatment with penicillin, erythromycin, or tetracycline might favour a rickettsial infection.

While most of our patients felt they had been bitten by an insect, none considered it had been a tick. Four cases came from the region of the Thetford Forest, where ticks reputedly exist, and one patient was bitten by something while walking' in the forest.
Another case has been reported from southeast Scotland.'
DAVID GOLDIN
Kent and Canterbury Hospital,
Canterbury

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1608178/pdf/brmedj00148-0055b.pdf

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov