"Sharp Increase in US Lyme Disease Cases Linked to Reporting Change"
Lyme disease cases in the US surged by almost 70% in 2022, reaching over 62,000 reported cases, but health officials attribute this increase to a change in reporting requirements rather than a major rise in new infections. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention noted that the shift in reporting methods, which now only requires a positive lab test for reporting cases in high-incidence states, may have contributed to the spike. Lyme disease is the most common tick-borne infection in the US, with the majority of cases occurring in the Northeast, Midwest, and mid-Atlantic states.
