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Lyme disease is caused by a bacteria called Borrelia burgdorferi. It is the most common vector borne illness in the United States, and the majority of the cases occur in the Northeast, mid Atlantic and the upper Midwest, like Northern California. Lyme disease was first found in Lyme, Connecticut, thus the name, and the prevalence of the disease occurs in areas where you have these black legged ticks called Ixodes scapularis and known as Ixodes pacificus as on the West Coast. So when you go hiking or you’re in a forest, the tick will latch onto your body and bite. When the tick bites, that’s when you have the bacteria go into your bloodstream and then it will spread to the rest of your body and causes symptoms of Lyme disease. Headaches, fatigue are common. And certainly after a tick bite, you may have a rash, a bull’s eye rash, which is the hallmark sign for Lyme disease. And it really does look like a circular rash with red and white rings centered around the point where you have the tick bite.
