Lyme disease is now endemic in Massachusetts, with 2,000 to 4,000 officially confirmed cases and as many as 10,000 additional unconfirmed cases each year, according to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. But the disease is not spread uniformly across the state, with Cape Cod and the Islands particularly hard hit.
It is critical that the state gain an accurate picture of the number of people who have Lyme Disease, as well as the number of new infections, Harvard School of Public Health’s [[William Hanage]], associate professor of epidemiology, told WBUR in the June 28, 2012 installment of a special series on the disease.
“To really frame a response, to get an idea of what the threat is, to be able to apportion scarce funds, and also to be able to communicate risk to the public, it’s important to know just what the burden of the disease is,” Hanage said.
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