Lyme disease and the strange symptoms that accompany it, has been a mysterious medical anomaly since it was first identified in 1975 in Connecticut. At first physicians could not narrow down what was behind the outbreak in the northeast. Initial attempts at finding the source of the spread and coming up with early treatments were largely unsuccessful. No one could figure out why these people were suddenly struck with an illness that mimicked Rheumatoid arthritis. It wasn't until 1981 that Dr. William Burgdorfer made a discovery of the bacteria in deer ticks that were prevalent in the area where the infections were popping up. Further tests would prove that this bacteria was in fact passed to humans via infected ticks and caused these mysterious symptoms that we know today as Lyme disease. We can see just how many counties had the most Lyme disease cases in 2019 on
this map from CEU fast. You can see the northeastern part of the US has overwhelmingly more cases that the rest of the US with Maine, Vermont, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire and Rhode Island having the highest confirmed cases per 100,000 people.
