Issue No. 326
J.F. Butler and H.A. Denmark
January, 1990
Introduction
Lyme disease, a newly recognized arthropod-borne zoonosis, is rapidly becoming an important public health problem in many areas of the United States. This spirochete-initiated disease is vectored and maintained by a hard tick, Ixodes dammini Spielman, Clifford, Piesman, & Corwin, in northeastern North America and by other species of ticks in other areas.
The initial identification of the disease started in 1975, when Dr. Allen Steere, a Yale rheumatologist, was studying an unexplained high frequency of arthritis in 3 small adjoining communities in Connecticut: Old Lyme, Lyme, and East Hadden. About 25 percent of the patients recalled having a skin rash. Some patients recalled being bitten by a tick. Dr. Steere described this new disease as Lyme disease (Benzaia, 1989).
In 1982, Dr. Burgdorfer discovered the responsible infectious agent, a spirochete, Borrelia burgdorferi Johnson, Schmidt, Hyde, Steigerwalt, and Brenner, in Ixodes ticks associated with deer and mice (Burgdorfer, 1984). The first association of Ixodes ticks and Lyme disease-like symptoms was reported in 1910 by Dr. Arvid Afzelius, a Swedish dermatologist, who reported a similar rash following tick bites by Ixodes ricinus (Linnaeus) (Benzaia, 1989).