Last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that instances of Lyme disease in the US are seriously underreported. In fact, there are likely 300,000 cases of the crippling disease per year—ten times more than previously thought.
Another recent CDC report has found that 13 states accounted for 96 percent of the Lyme disease cases reported in 2011. The good news for Washington is that we’re not the worst area for risk of Lyme disease. But the chances of us getting it are still pretty high compared with the rest of the country.
Maryland had 938 reported cases of Lyme disease, an incidence rate of 16.1 per 100,000 people. A majority of the cases occurred in Howard and Montgomery counties.
Virginia, which rounded out the top 13 states, reported 756 cases of Lyme disease in 2011, with most occurring in Loudoun, Fairfax, and Frederick counties, respectively.
DC was not included in this year’s report.
And the state with the highest rate of Lyme disease? Vice President Joe Biden’s home state of Delaware, which had an incidence rate of 84.6 per 100,000 people.
The following states had the most reported cases of Lyme disease:
- Delaware
- Vermont
- New Hampshire
- Maine
- Connecticut
- Wisconsin
- New Jersey
- Pennsylvania
- Massachusetts
- Minnesota
- Maryland
- New York
- Virginia
