- Lyme in California 2008
- 2007 Cases Reported by
One Lab by County - Lyme & TBDs Under-
recognized in California - Prevention Poster
(1.84MB)
Department Of Public Health
The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) home page is at http://www.cdph.ca.gov. Click on the Health Information tab and then on the A-Z Index or Diseases & Conditions to locate Lyme or other disease information. The CDPH brochure in English can be found by clicking here (2MB).
The brochure is also available in Spanish.
Click here to download (1.59MB).
Numbers
CDPH provides monthly Communicable Disease Summary Tables displaying the provisional numbers of case reports by disease during the named month and year-to-date. Comparable data for the preceding two years are shown as well. Lyme disease is at the bottom of the first page in each month’s report. You can find cases reported from each county during the month by paging further back in the report. Reported cases are confirmed by the Department to make sure they meet the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) case surveillance definition. If they do not, they are not counted in the final tally. Figures from the current month are not available until four to six weeks later. To view, go to: http://www.dhs.ca.gov/ps/dcdc/html/cdtables.htm
Dr. Robert Murray, who used to work for the Dept. of Public Health, kept an informal record of reported cases. If a county has a very small population, even a few cases can push up the incidence. Conversely, it takes many cases to make a dent in incidence figures when reported from huge metropolitan areas like Los Angeles. Click here to see a table showing average annual incidence of Lyme disease by county 1991-1995. Absolute numbers are not large, but in some sparsely populated rural counties the incidence is comparable to highly endemic areas on the east coast.
California has a direct lab reporting provision. Since direct lab reporting has been implemented, case numbers have more than doubled. However these cases still reflect only a small percentage of the people who actually have Lyme disease.
In 2005, a single California lab reported 401 cases of Lyme disease, while CDPH reported only 95 cases to the CDC. Click here to view. In 2007, a single California lab reported 1,137 cases. Click here to view. In the same year CDPH reported a total of only 107 cases to the CDC. All the rest were not counted because they did not meet the narrow CDC case surveillance definition. This chart illustrates the problem of undercounting. Click here to view.
Educational Materials
For CDPH brochures, posters, tick ID cards, go to: http://www.cdph.ca.gov/HealthInfo/discond/Pages/LymeDisease.aspx
For special children's information on preventing tick-borne disease, go to http://www.cdph.ca.gov/HealthInfo/discond/Pages/Ticks-Kids.aspx
Interactive Map
Go to the site and select “Detection of the Lyme Disease Agent in California Ticks” to access a report showing testing results for Borrelia burgdorferi from ticks collected around the state. Includes an interactive map. Click on the link under Data and Surveillance for the interactive map. Click here to go to site.
LDAC Information
The mission of the Lyme Disease Advisory Committee (LDAC) is to make recommendations to the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) on strategies to enhance the awareness of the public and the medical community about Lyme disease in California, and thereby reduce exposure to and suffering from tick-borne diseases.
The Committee is made up of representatives of the California Lyme Disease Association, Lyme disease support groups, physicians from the California Medical Association and the California Conference of Health Officers, a public health nurse, representatives from academia, and one representative from CDPH. A broad range of views is represented on this Committee.
The Committee works on five areas of emphasis: education of the medical community, education of the general public, education of school children, risk assessment, and disease prevention. Meetings are open to the public.
Minutes of past meetings are available here by clicking here.
CALDA has kept records of some past minutes that are no longer available on the CDPH website, copies of public testimony, and informal notes of past meetings. You can download these by clicking below.
1. "High Hopes from the CA Lyme Disease Support Groups" public testimony by Lee Lull, LDAC member, Lyme Network representative, August 7, 2001.
2. Lyme Disease Advisory Committee, Minutes of the November 28, 2001 Meeting.
3. Lyme Disease Advisory Committee, Minutes of the March 14, 2002 Meeting.
4. Notes on Lyme Disease Advisory Committee Meeting by Phyllis Mervine, March 14, 2002.
5. Lyme Disease Advisory Committee, Minutes of the July 9, 2002 Meeting.
6. Lyme Disease Advisory Committee, Minutes of the November 14, 2002 Meeting.
7. DHS and Physician Education History, public testimony by Lee Lull, LDAC member, representative of the Lyme Disease Network March 2003 LDAC meeting.
8. Notes on Lyme Disease Advisory Committee Meeting by Phyllis Mervine, March 20, 2006.
9. Written testimony by Melissa Kaplan, March 18, 2006.
CALDA urges patients and their supporters to attend the LDAC meetings in Sacramento and to make their concerns known. If you want to be notified of the meetings, please contact Denise Bonilla in the Vector Borne Disease Division dbonilla@cdph.ca.gov or call 916-552-9730.
