Lyme disease case counts in the US rose by almost 70% in 2022 due to a change in how it’s reported

By MIKE STOBBE
AP Medical Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Lyme disease cases in the United States jumped nearly 70% in 2022. Health officials say it’s due to a change in reporting requirements of the tick-borne illness, and not an explosion of new infections. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says reported cases surpassed 62,000 in 2022, after averaging about 37,000 a year in 2017 through 2019. An estimated 476,000 Americans are diagnosed with it each year, but only a fraction are officially reported. Starting in 2022, health officials only needed to report a positive test.