CDC Research Shows Disease-carrying Ticks Expanding Into New Areas

New research from the CDC finds that ticks that cause diseases keep marching into new areas. Angela Newman of Biltmore Forest, North Carolina, remembers the “bizarre” symptoms she began experiencing almost a decade ago: blurry vision, a stiff neck, hypersensitive skin, numbness and weakness that would come and go. She saw a variety of medical specialists, undergoing an MRI, CT scan and psychiatric assessments.

The doctors often dismissed her symptoms as anxiety or depression, Newman, 57, said. Finally, at a college reunion she mentioned her illness to a friend who recognized the mysterious symptoms as a possible case of Lyme disease. When she called her primary doctor for a Lyme disease test, he told her, “I don’t think you have Lyme.

We don’t really have that around here, Newman said. I said, ‘I don’t care what you think. I want you to test me.’” The results were positive — a diagnosis that took five years to make.

Within days of receiving antibiotics, her symptoms started to abate. It took nearly a year to feel like her usual, energetic self. I knew I wasn’t crazy, she said.