Years of tracking Lyme disease and analyzing tick populations have allowed Yale researchers to pinpoint areas most at risk for the seasonal disease in 2012. According CBS, the map was drawn up in an attempt to improve the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of Lyme disease.
“The key value is identifying areas where the risk for Lyme disease is the highest, so that should alert the public and the clinicians and the public health agencies in terms of taking more precautions and potential interventions,” said study author Maria Diuk-Wasser with the Yale School of Public Health. “In areas that are low risk, a case of Lyme disease is not impossible but it’s highly unlikely, so the clinician should be considering other diagnoses.”
Researchers were able to pinpoint risk areas by years of study, which involved dragging sheets of fabric through the woods to collect ticks. The end result is a map published in the February issue of the American Journal of Tropical Medicine.
High risk areas were fairly predictable for those familiar with Lyme disease, but researchers also found that risk was spreading. High risk regions include Northeastern states from Maine to northern Virginia, the upper Midwest, and a small section of northern Illinois. Risk is spreading to the Illinois-Indiana border, the New York-Vermont border, southwestern Michigan and eastern North Dakota.
