Why is it called Lyme Disease?
Many people mistakenly believe Lyme disease did not appear until the 1970’s, and this is because this was the first time that the symptoms that had been prevalent for many years (such as the erythema migrans rash) were conclusively linked to the bites of ticks. The actual term ‘Lyme disease’ was not used until 1975, and this resulted from an investigation carried out in Lyme, Connecticut. Researchers were looking into an unusually high number of arthritis cases in children and discovered that the majority of them lived and played in wooded areas which were key tick habitats. They also discovered that the children had suffered from skin rashes prior to developing the arthritis and that many of them also recalled being bitten by ticks. This conclusive link to ticks and certain common symptoms led to the condition being name after the area as ‘Lyme disease’. Although the link between tick bites and Lyme disease was proved in the 1970’s, the presence of the bacteria named Borrelia burgdorf
