Northern Nevada has seen an increase in Lyme disease cases recently, and public health officials are concerned, according to the Nevada Current.
What's happening?
The Northern Nevada Public Health Office's 2024 summary of its communicable disease tracking showed that Lyme disease cases were increasing annually. Lyme disease is caused by bacteria and is primarily transmitted by the black-legged tick.
Though Washoe County, Nev., only had 11 cases of Lyme disease in 2024, that's a big jump from one case in 2020.
The Nevada Current also stated that public health officials worry that the number is actually higher. It's likely that cases are underreported because of how much Lyme disease can resemble other illnesses.
Why is this increase in Lyme disease cases concerning?
The medical landscape wasn't always like this. Generally speaking, medical professionals used to worry (and some still do) that Lyme was overdiagnosed.
A 2022 study in the American Journal of Medicine looked at 1,261 referred patients. Of that amount, 1,061 of them didn't have active Lyme disease. Leading diagnoses included anxiety/depression (21%), fibromyalgia (11%), and chronic fatigue syndrome (7%).
But since then, the Centers for Disease and Prevention Control published a paper stating that cases have jumped since 2022. This is likely because of better monitoring. The CDC adjusted its reporting requirements then to make it easier for states with higher incidences of Lyme disease to report cases.
Cases may be going up because, among other things, our winters are becoming milder. A Grist article stated that warmer winters (and springs and falls) have drastically extended tick mating periods. Populations have also increased recently in places like Pennsylvania.
Of the roughly 500,000 cases that were diagnosed in 2022, states only reported about a fifth of them to the CDC. To understand the number of Lyme cases that exist, updated tracking systems (like what the CDC has attempted to create) are crucial.
Reporting Lyme is important for patients as well. If it isn't treated quickly, Lyme can spread from the infection site to the heart, joints, and nervous system, according to the NNPH office. Getting swift treatment is key to ensuring that the affected person has a chance to recover fully.
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Majorly 😥 What's being done about Lyme disease?
If you suspect you have Lyme, see a medical professional. As the Current reported, not every case involves Lyme's infamous bulls-eye rash.
Prevention can also mean you don't have to plan that visit in the first place.
"We highly recommend that people be careful when they go out into wooded areas and go camping or hiking because they're so easy to overlook and prevention is the key," Northern Nevada Public Health epidemiologist Liliana Wilbert said, per the Current.
The NNPH only recommends removing ticks "by gripping it at the base of the imbedded mouthparts with … tweezers." If you gently pull on the tick for a few seconds, it will release on its own.
As the office also said, don't ever use Vaseline, gasoline, alcohol, or a lit match to extract the tick. Don't twist the tick, either. These methods could cause the tick to release bacteria into the bitten area and increase your risk of infection.
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