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Article: Lyme disease: impact of the CDC surveillance criteria on patients.(Townsend's New York Observer)(Center for Disease Control and Prevention)
- Article from:
- Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients
- Article date:
- June 1, 2004
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2004 The Townsend Letter Group. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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My first Townsend column about Lyme disease (April 2004) opened with a startling fact: this tick-transmitted infection is the most prevalent vector-borne disease in the US. According to recent CDC statistics, Lyme cases constitute 95% of all reports for such diseases. (1) The remaining 5% includes the mosquito-transmitted West Nile Virus, sensationally publicized but by no measure affecting as many Americans as Lyme.
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That earlier Townsend column pointed to the narrowly-defined surveillance criteria for reporting cases issued by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as a significant reason for uncertainty over the ...