LYME DISEASE—“A TREMENDOUS PUBLIC HEALTH PROBLEM IN THE UNITED STATES”. As CBS reports here, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has released new estimates that Lyme disease is about 300,000 cases a year in the United States—ten times more than had been previously thought. Says CBS: “The new figure is the CDC’s most comprehensive attempt at a better estimate.” Dr. Paul Mead, chief of epidemiology and surveillance for CDC’s Lyme disease program, is quoted as saying: “This new preliminary estimate confirms that Lyme disease is a tremendous public health problem in the United States….”
I posted here on the controversy over whether Lyme disease is overdiagnosed and overtreated. Will this correction of undercounting make a difference in that controversy?