14 Cases of Lyme Disease in Bethel in 2015: CDC

By MARC TORRENCE (Patch National Staff) & WENDY ANN MITCHELL (Patch Staff)

BETHEL, CT — According to a recent report by the Center for Disease Control (CDC), Bethel had 19 cases of Lyme disease in 2015. Twelve of them were confirmed and seven were unconfirmed, the CDC stated.

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Incidents of Lyme disease are on the rise and the geographical spread of the disease is widening, according to the Center for Disease Control.

Over the last 20 years, in the Northeast—which included counties in Connecticut, New York and Massachusetts, among others—the number of counties with a high rate of the disease increased from 43 to 182, more than 320 percent.

The reason for this uptick? Climate change, the scientists say.

Scientists also say that as humans clear forests, popular tick targets like mice begin to find other homes, leaving ticks with fewer mammals to latch on to. So they go to another abundant source passing through their area: humans.

Connecticut is considered a high-risk area, as is nearly all of Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Other states that saw a growth in high-risk cases include New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia.

The CDC states that if you observe any of the symptoms below, you should seek immediate medical attention.

• Red, expanding rash called erythema migranes (EM)
• Fatigue, chills, fever, headache, muscle and joint aches, and swollen lymph nodes
• Red rash
• Small bump or redness at the site of a tick bite

The first cases of Lyme disease appeared in children in Old Lyme, Connecticut in 1975.

According to National Geographic, an unproven controversial theory is that it was spread from germ warfare experiments at the Plum Island Animal Disease Research Center, on Long Island Sound about eight miles from Old Lyme.

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