Sarah Avery from newsobserver.com reported on Oct 1st that doctors have finally realized that the Lyme disease epidemic is in North Carolina.
After years of educating patients that it’s unlikely to get Lyme disease in North Carolina, state health leaders are now advising that the tick-borne illness can, in fact, be acquired here.
In at least four cases this year, Lyme was confirmed among patients who never left their home counties, ruling out the prospect that they picked up the Borrelia bacterial infection while traveling.
Based on the new evidence, Dr. Megan Davies, state epidemiologist, said the state is now working to bring Lyme Awareness to doctors throughout North Carolina, who for years were reluctant to even test patients for Lyme disease because it wasn’t considered much of a possibility.