As
we end the year, here is a 2017 review of private claims data which
tracks the rising incidence and effects of Lyme disease. This includes
symptoms reported to insurers (increased rates of fatigue, and pain,
with higher fibromyalgia diagnoses), rising rates of the incidence of LD
in rural and urban communities (including the southern parts of the
US!), and autoimmune manifestations. These figures do not account for
those individuals diagnosed with Lyme "mimics" including CFS/ME,
other autoimmune illness such as seronegative RA or MS, or early
dementia and neuropsychiatric illness that are due to Lyme, associated
co-infections and overlapping inflammatory conditions on the 16 point
MSIDS map. The numbers are therefore probably much higher. Dr Holly
Ahern did a study years ago that showed that although 2% of respondents
reported being diagnosed with LD according to CDC criteria for
“probable” Lyme disease (which was significantly higher than the number
of reported cases i.e., 0.3% of the US population in 2012), 16% percent
of undiagnosed survey respondents reported subjective signs and symptoms
consistent with “late-stage” Lyme disease (Ahern, H. Comparison of Lyme
Disease Prevalence and Disease Reporting in an Endemic Area, Journal of
Microbiology Research, Vol. 3 No. 6, 2013, pp. 261-265. doi:
10.5923/j.microbiology.20130306.11).
The full range of physical, mental, emotional and financial burdens is also not reflected in this report, but it does give a sense of the spreading problem and urgency to address tick-borne diseases in the US.
The full range of physical, mental, emotional and financial burdens is also not reflected in this report, but it does give a sense of the spreading problem and urgency to address tick-borne diseases in the US.
Claims data are used to track rising incidence of Lyme disease and its relationship to autoimmune disease.
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