A cost-of-illness study of lyme disease in the United States

Abstract Lyme disease produces a diverse clinical picture that can include serious and potentially debilitating cardiac, neurologic, joint, and skin involvement. It is characterized in three stages—early localized (stage I), early disseminated (stage II), and late disseminated (stage III)—and medical management is highly dependent on the stage at which the patient presents and the physician's awareness of available treatment options. This study was conducted to establish the medical and economic burden of Lyme disease in the overall US population, which included determining its endemicity in high-risk states and counties, describing current treatment patterns, measuring direct and indirect costs, and defining the cost burden by age group (