Q uest Diagnostics has released findings from over six million Lyme disease lab tests it has performed over the last seven years.
Quest detected Lyme in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, as the number of cases continues to rise nationwide.1
This report provides the first national analysis of Lyme disease based on laboratory data. (See this article for similar data based on insurance claims.2)
A Decided Spike
According to the report, 60% of the Lyme disease cases found by Quest occurred in the northeastern U.S., with a decided spike in the last few years.
Pennsylvania registered the most positive test results in the nation, with 10,001 cases in 2017, followed by six New England states (Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont) reporting another 11,549 cases combined.
More surprising to me was the exponential increase in the number of positive test results found in California and Florida, two states often dismissed by the CDC as not having very much Lyme disease.
What’s most disturbing about these numbers is the huge discrepancy between the number of positive test results and the number of cases reported by the CDC.
Let me break it down.
First, let’s look at the big picture by comparing the CDC map (each dot represents one CDC positive case) and Quest’s map of positive test results. The Northeast looks pretty similar between the two maps, but there are glaring discrepancies in the South and West.
Now let’s compare Quest’s numbers to the latest CDC data.……… Join or login below to continue reading.
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