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Cases of Lyme Disease in the United States: Locations Correlated with Distribution of Ixodes dammini
Abstract
Lyme disease, defined by erythema chronicum migrans and sometimes followed by neurologic, cardiac, or joint involvement, is known to have affected 512 patients in the United States. The disease seems to occur in three distinct foci: along the northeastern coast, in Wisconsin, and in California and Oregon, a distribution that correlates closely with that of Ixodes dammini in the first two areas and with Ixodes pacificus in the last. The implicated tick, saved by six patients in the Northeast, was identified as nymphal I. dammini. Residence in or travel to endemic areas and history of tick bite may be important clues to diagnosis.
Article and Author Information
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▸From the Departments of Medicine, Epidemiology, and Public Health, Yale University School of Medicine; New Haven, Connecticut.
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Grant support: in part by U.S. Public Health Service grants AM-20358, AM-10493, AM-07107, AM-5639, RR-05443, and RR-00125; the Arthritis Foundation and its Connecticut chapter; and the Kroc Foundation, Santa Ynez, California.
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▸Requests for reprints should be addressed to Allen C. Steere, M.D.; Department of Internal Medicine, Yale University School of Medicine, 333 Cedar Street; New Haven, CT 06510.
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- Received July 27, 1979.
- Accepted August 27, 1979.
