Lyme disease is a tick-borne disease that causes a variety of symptoms in humans, including respiratory issues, joint pain, and rashes and fever. It was first identified in Lyme, Connecticut, in 1977 and has expanded across the northeastern US since then. If you work outdoors in areas where deer are plentiful, you may have found ticks on your clothing or skin and may have even been bitten by one. In recent years, Lyme disease has been expanding north into Canada, which may be due in part to warmer winters which make it easier for ticks to over-winter. However, Lyme disease is also spreading south, which means that the spread cannot be linked just to climate change. Scientists think that expansion of suburbs and increased exposure of people to deer and ticks may also explain some of the expansion southward. You can find a story about it by clicking here.
