The bite of a tiny tick can cause a bacterial infection called Lyme disease or Lyme borreliosis.
Ticks and the diseases they carry are becoming increasingly widespread in the United Kingdom.
It is possible to catch Lyme disease anywhere in the UK and cases have been
recorded in every county. There are known ‘hot spots’ where tick populations and cases of the disease are higher than average. However, not every tick carries the infection.
Official figures for numbers of laboratory-confirmed cases of Lyme disease in England and Wales were 292
in 2003, 500 in 2004, 595 in 2005 and 768 recorded cases in 2006. The Health Protection Agency acknowledges that these numbers do not equate to actual numbers of cases, which they estimate could be up to 3000 per annum.
Lyme Disease Action has evidence that even these figures may be an
underestimate.
An unknown number of people with Lyme disease are not recorded in any way because they are never diagnosed. Some people may make a good degree of recovery through the body’s innate defences alone and these also may not be recorded.
Lyme disease is a
notifiable disease in Scotland, which means that cases must be reported. However, in the rest of the United Kingdom, Lyme disease has not been given this status. For more information see Questions to Parliament and Responses.
Lyme disease has a world-wide dimension
with cases being reported throughout North America, Europe and Asia.
Lyme Disease Action is calling upon the government to take all possible measures to form an accurate assessment of the scale of the problem and to improve disease prevention measures:
(See Requires Government Action)
Related Information can be found at the following Links:
Figures for England and Wales and the location of tick ‘hot spots can be found at:
Other Information
http://www.ilads.org/Please help us to help you by making a donation for ‘Lobby for Lyme’ and all our vital work.
Lyme Disease Action, Registered Charity Number 1100448, Registered Company Number 4839410
Home | Terms and Conditions | Site map