Ticks and Lyme Disease in the United States

Excerpt

In 1909, the Swedish physician Arvid Afzelius described for the first time a migrating annular lesion, erythema chronicum migrans, on a patient bitten by the ixodid tick, Ixodes ricinus. Subsequently, numerous cases of erythema chronicum migrans have been reported in northern and middle Europe and have been associated with the bites of this tick or possibly other hematophagous arthropods. The cause of this and related disorders (meningoradiculitis or Bannwarth's syndrome) remained unknown although tick-transmitted toxins, viruses, rickettsiae, and even spirochetes had been considered.

In the United States, the first case of erythema chronicum migrans was reported in 1970 from Wisconsin