About 300 000 cases of Lyme disease are diagnosed in the United States each year, according to data presented by scientists from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) at the International Conference on Lyme Borreliosis in Boston in August. The new estimate is 10 times greater than the number of cases of the infection reported to the CDC annually.
Each year, about 30 000 cases of Lyme disease are reported to the CDC, primarily from states in the upper Midwest and Northeast. But many cases may not come to the attention of state public health authorities, so the CDC embarked on an effort to better assess the prevalence of Lyme disease by looking at clinical records, laboratory reports, and a survey of the public. The new estimate is based on preliminary results from those efforts.