Lyme Disease Outbreak 2015: Tick-Borne Disease Spreading - Symptoms in Humans, Treatment & Rash Pictures

Lyme disease has been spreading in drastically, according to a study released by the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention agency this Wednesday.

Kiersten Kugeler, lead author of the study, said via Business Insider: "The risk [of Lyme disease] is expanding, in all directions."

Currently, there are 260 counties in the United States where the number of Lyme disease cases have doubled.

According to Business Insider, cases of the disease are still concentrated in the Northeast and upper Midwest of the United States. In general, the high-risk counties can be found in 17 different states.

All of Connecticut has been considered a high-risk state in terms of Lyme disease. It so happens that the tick-born illness was first discovered in Connecticut in 1975.

Other states that have high-risk counties include Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Main and Vermont. High-risk areas for the disease can be found in majority of Massachusetts and New Hampshire. High-risk zone areas encompass more than half the states of Maine and Vermont.

Meanwhile, several other states with areas where the disease seemed to double include Virginia, Pennsylvania and the Eastern seaboard of New York. While in the Midwest, the illness is spreading in Iowa, Michigan and Minnesota.

Symptoms of the disease in humans include Erythma migrans, arthritis and neurological symptoms.

According to Web MD, Erythma migrans, which appears as a small rash, occurs in 70 to 80 percent of lyme disease cases. It starts with a small red dot, which eventually grows to look like a bull's eye, within a couple of days or weeks.

Meanwhile, exactly 60 percent of people diagnosed with the disease develop symptoms of arthritis several weeks after infection, if not treated with antibiotics.

Lyme disease can also effect the nervous system, resulting in neurological symptoms like Bell's palsy, memory loss or poor coordination.

Other less common symptoms of Lyme disease include heart problems, eye inflammation and severe fatigue.

The tick-born illness can usually be treated by antibiotics, like doxycycline or amoxicillin. Treatment for the disease can be taken orally for just two to four weeks, as soon as the patient is diagnosed. For more severe cases of Lyme disease, antibiotics can be administered intravenously.

GlaxoSmithKline developed a vaccine to treat Lyme disease in 1998. However, certain groups, which included anti-vaccers and their lawyers, filed a lawsuit against the company in 2002 to stop selling the vaccine.

As a result, GlaxoSmithKline settled the matter out of court and stopped making the vaccine. Another company, who was also working on a vaccine for the illness, never even filed for a license due to the lawsuit against GlaxoSmithKline.