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Lyme disease cases in America have grown 444% since 1996.

The official count says 89,468 cases in 2023. The government's own claims data says the real number is closer to 476,000 people a year. This site tracks the data, follows the news, publishes the documented federal record, and collects signatures demanding the files Congress has already asked for three times.

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89,468

cases reported to CDC in 2023

last 12 years

~476,000

Americans actually diagnosed and treated each year

CDC's own insurance-claims analysis. Roughly ten times what the surveillance system counts. Source

+444%

growth in reported cases since 1996

16,455 in 1996 → 89,468 in 2023

—

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Reported cases, 1996–2023

Source: CDC National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System. Last refreshed 2026-09-22.

COVID-19 reporting disruption 2020–2021

Several jurisdictions submitted incomplete data in 2019-2021 because public health staff were redirected to the COVID-19 response. The dip is a reporting artifact, not a fall in disease.

Surveillance case definition revised 2022

CDC adopted a revised Lyme disease surveillance case definition in 2022. Reported cases rose about 69%. CDC attributes the increase primarily to changed surveillance methods in high-incidence jurisdictions rather than to a real change in disease risk. Do not read the 2021-2022 step as an outbreak.

Read CDC's explanation →

View the data as a table

Lyme disease cases reported to CDC, 1996–2023. Source: CDC NNDSS.
Year	Reported cases	Per 100,000
1996	16,455	6.11
1997	12,801	4.70
1998	16,801	6.09
1999	16,273	5.83
2000	17,730	6.28
2001	17,029	5.97
2002	23,763	8.26
2003	21,273	7.33
2004	19,804	6.76
2005	23,305	7.88
2006	19,931	6.67
2007	27,444	9.10
2008	35,198	11.56
2009	38,468	12.53
2010	30,158	9.75
2011	33,097	10.62
2012	30,831	9.82
2013	36,307	11.49
2014	33,461	10.51
2015	38,069	11.87
2016	36,429	11.28
2017	42,743	13.15
2018	33,666	10.30
2019	34,945	10.64
2020	18,000	5.46
2021	24,611	7.42
2022	62,551	18.84
2023	89,468	26.94

Where the cases are

Two regions — the Middle Atlantic and New England — have carried the majority of reported cases for the entire surveillance period. The four smallest regions are folded together so the colors stay distinguishable.

Middle Atlantic
New England
East North Central
South Atlantic
West North Central
Other regions

By state, 2008–2023

Counts marked † come from jurisdictions that changed surveillance methods under the 2022 case definition; figures before and after 2022 are not directly comparable for those states.

Reported Lyme disease cases by state, 2008–2023. Source: CDC NNDSS. Click a column heading to sort.
State	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023
Alabama	9	3	2	24	25	24	64	25	38	41	36	66	14	51	32	36
Alaska	6	7	7	11	10	14	8	9	15	10	11	3	0	0	7	2
Arizona	8	7	2	15	13	32	21	12	13	28	7	10	2	3	9	16
Arkansas	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	6	4	18	12	11	2	5
California	74	117	129	92	70	112	73	98	134	145	104	144	53	106	77	109
Colorado	3	1	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	4	3	8	0	0	10	32
Connecticut †	3,896	4,156	3,068	3,039	2,657	2,925	2,360	2,541	1,748	2,051	1,859	1,233	614	541	2,022	3,239
Delaware †	772	984	656	873	669	509	417	435	506	608	520	641	355	140	298	349
District of Columbia †	74	61	42	0	0	35	40	121	103	84	79	100	120	91	77	108
Florida	88	110	84	115	118	138	155	166	216	210	169	162	121	193	233	271
Georgia	35	40	10	32	31	8	4	8	4	8	19	18	32	35	31	18
Idaho	9	16	9	4	5	19	9	9	17	20	9	14	6	6	10	11
Illinois	108	136	135	194	204	337	233	287	237	273	276	395	295	540	259	372
Indiana	42	83	78	94	74	110	110	138	152	142	155	189	212	314	236	257
Iowa	109	108	85	100	165	247	194	318	232	255	283	303	257	359	154	212
Kansas	16	18	10	17	19	34	20	23	39	40	30	35	17	22	9	12
Kentucky	5	1	5	3	14	40	44	49	33	20	22	22	32	41	72	120
Louisiana	3	0	3	2	7	0	2	3	7	12	4	8	2	4	5	15
Maine †	908	970	751	1,006	1,111	1,373	1,401	1,201	1,487	1,850	1,405	2,167	1,128	1,510	2,653	2,942
Maryland †	2,218	2,024	1,617	1,351	1,651	1,197	1,373	1,728	1,866	1,891	1,382	1,417	842	916	2,035	2,470
Massachusetts †	4,582	5,256	3,263	2,476	5,138	5,290	5,304	4,224	198	410	16	7	107	27	5,052	9,715
Michigan	92	103	95	104	98	168	127	148	221	291	262	413	468	862	557	1,152
Minnesota †	1,282	1,543	1,960	2,124	1,515	2,340	1,416	1,805	2,126	2,318	1,541	1,528	0	1,902	2,685	2,938
Mississippi	1	0	0	5	1	0	2	4	1	1	4	4	1	1	3	4
Missouri	6	3	4	8	2	3	10	5	10	12	11	17	7	7	7	16
Montana	17	3	4	11	6	18	7	5	17	12	7	8	3	13	13	11
Nebraska	12	5	8	11	15	10	7	11	14	14	15	10	5	10	9	5
Nevada	12	13	2	5	10	16	6	7	15	17	14	17	4	17	10	14
New Hampshire †	1,601	1,415	1,339	1,299	1,450	1,687	724	529	891	1,381	1,428	1,710	299	397	1,085	1,573
New Jersey †	3,485	4,973	3,712	4,262	3,576	3,766	3,286	4,855	4,350	5,092	4,000	3,619	2,566	3,518	5,897	7,224
New Mexico	8	5	5	6	1	6	0	0	1	3	2	7	0	2	3	11
New York †	7,794	5,651	3,425	4,490	2,998	4,615	3,736	4,314	3,882	5,155	3,638	4,243	2,240	3,006	16,798	22,173
North Carolina	47	96	82	88	122	180	170	230	272	295	212	334	264	338	279	228
North Dakota	10	15	33	27	15	29	14	33	32	56	33	38	36	34	22	15
Ohio	45	58	44	53	67	93	119	154	160	270	293	467	409	590	553	1,307
Oklahoma	2	2	0	2	4	3	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	3
Oregon	38	38	39	38	48	43	45	31	61	84	70	65	39	74	61	61
Pennsylvania †	3,818	5,722	3,805	5,362	5,033	5,758	7,487	9,048	11,443	11,900	10,208	8,998	3,334	2,900	8,413	16,671
Rhode Island †	210	235	181	159	217	724	904	904	903	1,132	1,111	971	839	980	2,326	2,852
South Carolina	29	42	29	37	44	42	37	42	51	21	39	47	48	76	44	55
South Dakota	3	1	1	4	4	4	2	5	11	12	7	10	8	16	12	7
Tennessee	31	37	36	37	30	25	17	26	25	47	29	45	38	57	32	50
Texas	153	276	142	74	75	82	40	54	71	58	47	41	11	32	23	27
Utah	5	9	3	9	5	15	13	7	19	25	27	19	14	18	16	16
Vermont †	404	408	356	623	522	893	599	710	761	1,092	576	1,064	59	115	1,312	1,445
Virginia †	933	908	1,245	1,023	1,110	1,307	1,346	1,539	1,350	1,657	1,139	1,199	555	705	1,403	1,747
Washington	23	16	16	19	15	18	15	24	31	37	20	43	20	43	23	25
West Virginia †	135	201	145	118	97	143	136	289	368	648	671	885	1,065	1,792	2,470	3,242
Wisconsin †	2,034	2,589	3,488	3,649	1,766	1,872	1,361	1,894	2,295	3,000	1,869	2,178	1,447	2,193	5,208	6,283
Wyoming	3	3	0	2	4	3	3	1	1	4	0	5	0	2	4	2

Latest Lyme disease news

Pulled automatically every six hours from PubMed, ClinicalTrials.gov, Congress.gov, the Federal Register, CDC, NIH and the news wire.

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The question Congress keeps asking

Between 1950 and 1975 the US Army ran declassified field trials using insects as biological weapon vectors. Congress has three times directed a federal review of whether ticks were among them, and whether any were released.

The complete findings have never been published.

This site does not claim the government created Lyme disease — the bacterium is over five thousand years old and was on Long Island by 1945. It asks the narrower question that has a real answer sitting in a file somewhere.

See the full timeline with sources →

If Lyme disease took something from you, say so on the record.

Every verified signature is one more documented American. Every story is evidence that this is not rare, not imaginary, and not over.

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