WASHINGTON, DC — Pennsylvania has reported the highest number of Lyme disease cases for the past five years in a row. In 2013, there were about 86 cases reported in Wayne County and 39 in Pike County; the black-legged ticks that carry the disease are now found in all 67 counties in the state.

Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) said in a press release from April 30 that the disease is often underreported, and calls for increased funding for the, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to be used for Lyme disease surveillance.

Casey has also created a Lyme disease information page on his website (www.casey.senate.gov/help/lyme-disease) to provide information to the public. He said, “As we enter the summer months, when Lyme risk is greatest, it is important to raise awareness among Pennsylvanians about the risk posed by tick-borne diseases… We need better surveillance for Lyme disease so that we have an accurate picture of how it affects Pennsylvanians. That is why I’m calling for more resources so that the CDC is better able to target prevention efforts and ensure that resources are available for the hardest-hit communities.”

The incidence of the disease is growing. According to CDC, there were 4,981 cases of Lyme disease in the state in 2013. There were approximately 1,000 more cases reported in Pennsylvania in 2014 than in 2013, and the CDC estimates that only 10% of actual cases are reported.

Research suggests that the warming climate is allowing the ticks that carry the disease to migrate into areas where they formerly were not found in large numbers, such as Canada and North Dakota. Further, warmer temperatures are extending the tick season, and allowing ticks to emerge weeks earlier in the season than in the past.

The symptoms of the disease vary widely and can become quite serious, and treatment costs the U.S. healthcare system more than $1 billion annually. While sometimes treatment may be brief and not too expensive, according to a February study from Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, (tinyurl.com/lgp29s9) an estimated “ten to 20% of individuals may experience Post-Treatment Lyme Disease Syndrome (PTLDS)—a set of symptoms including fatigue, musculoskeletal pain, and neurocognitive complaints that persist after initial treatment.”

The study says, “Lyme disease and the ongoing symptoms that may occur after initial antibiotic treatment represent a significant source of health care utilization and costs. These increased costs may have a considerable impact on overall health care spending in the United States. Extrapolating from the data, if we assume that… there are approximately 240,000–440,000 cases of Lyme disease annually [in the U.S.], and using our estimate of $2,968 greater annual health care costs for those diagnosed with Lyme disease, the total direct medical costs attributable to Lyme disease and PTLDS could be somewhere between $712 million - $1.3 billion each year.