By Emma Patten-Hitt, PhD
ATLANTA (Reuters
Health) - You may be more likely to contract Lyme disease now
than you were in 1990, but probably only if you go hiking in Connecticut
in July wearing a short-sleeved shirt and shorts, study findings
suggest.
The number
of cases of Lyme disease, a bacterial infection transmitted by
a species of tick, has been on the rise since 1990, according
to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta,
Georgia. The US saw an increase from about 8,000 cases in 1990
to over 16,000 in 1999, although the number decreased slightly
from 1998 to 1999.
"The
increase might be due to more people getting infected," Stacie
Marshall, of the CDC, told Reuters Health, "but may also
be due to better reporting of the disease in states where there
is a lot of Lyme disease."
Lyme disease
is preventable most easily through preventing the bite of the
tick, according to Marshall. "You should wear insect repellent,
appropriate clothing, check for ticks and stay out of tick-infested
areas if possible," she advised.
According
to the report in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report
for March 16, the states with the highest number of new Lyme disease
cases in 1999 were Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, and Pennsylvania.
Lyme disease
will probably not spread all over the United States, Marshall
noted. "It takes quite a few things--you have to have the
tick in the area, as well as the ecology--these ticks also need
a certain species of deer to mate on to complete their life cycle,
and the ticks get infected mostly from a species of rodent called
white-footed mice," she explained. "There are only certain
areas where all that collides," she added.
"We might
see a trend in increasing numbers in the future. We don't know
if and when it will level off," Marshall said. But she stated
that "there's never been a reported case of a person dying
from Lyme disease."
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