If you thought you were safe from Lyme disease because you don’t live in New England, where the tick-borne illness first appeared, think again. Now, all 50 states plus the District of Columbia have residents who have tested positive for Lyme, a bacterial infection that can cause a wide variety of symptoms, including joint aches, fatigue, facial palsy and neck stiffness.
This news comes from a report from the clinical laboratory Quest Diagnostics, which analyzed the results of 6 million blood tests doctors had ordered to diagnose Lyme disease in their patients. The report found that Pennsylvania had the most positive cases last year: 10,001.
The Pennsylvania tally, along with that of the six New England states — Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont — accounted for about 60 percent of the country’s Lyme disease cases. Positive results grew by 50 percent in New England and by 78 percent in Pennsylvania from 2016 to 2017.
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