Lyme disease is the most commonly diagnosed vector-borne disease in the United States, with over 99,000 cases reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from 1982 to 1996. During that time, the incidence of reported cases increased by at least 32-fold (LYMErix, 1998).

It is also currently the fastest growing infectious disease in the world (Vanderhoof-Forschner, 1997): between 1991 and 2000, the incidence of Lyme Disease in the United States nearly doubled and the 17,730 cases reported for the year 2000 was higher than any other previous year (Schwan, 2003). Lyme disease even surpasses AIDS as one of our nation’s fastest growing epidemics (Lang, 1997).

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