No Geographic Correlation between Lyme Disease and Death Due to 4 Neurodegenerative Disorders, United States, 2001-2010

• Published in: Emerging infectious diseases Vol. 21; no. 11; pp. 2036 - 2039
• Main Authors: Forrester, Joseph D, Kugeler, Kiersten J, Perea, Anna E, Pastula, Daniel M, Mead, Paul S
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States U.S. National Center for Infectious Diseases 01-11-2015; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• Subjects: ALS; Alzheimer disease; Alzheimer Disease - epidemiology; Alzheimer Disease - etiology; amyotrophic lateral sclerosis; Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis - epidemiology; Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis - etiology; Care and treatment; Development and progression; Genetic aspects; Geographic Mapping; Humans; Incidence; Lyme disease; Lyme Disease - epidemiology; multiple sclerosis; Multiple Sclerosis - epidemiology; Multiple Sclerosis - etiology; Nervous system diseases; Neurodegenerative Diseases - epidemiology; Neurodegenerative Diseases - etiology; No Geographic Correlation between Lyme Disease and Death due to 4 Neurodegenerative Disorders, United States, 2001–2010; Parkinson disease; Parkinson Disease - epidemiology; Parkinson Disease - etiology; Patient outcomes; Risk factors; United States; United States; geographic distribution; Lyme disease; Borrelia burgdorferi; bacteria; Alzheimer disease; United States; MS; multiple sclerosis; ALS; Parkinson disease; zoonoses; neurodegenerative disorders; amyotrophic lateral sclerosis; neurodegenerative diseases; vector-borne infections; vectorborne diseases
• DOI: 10.3201/eid2111.150778
• EISSN: 1080-6059
• ISSN: 1080-6040

Associations between Lyme disease and certain neurodegenerative diseases have been proposed, but supportive evidence for an association is lacking. Similar geographic distributions would be expected if 2 conditions were etiologically linked. Thus, we compared the distribution of Lyme disease cases in the United States with the distributions of deaths due to Alzheimer disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), multiple sclerosis (MS), and Parkinson disease; no geographic correlations were identified. Lyme disease incidence per US state was not correlated with rates of death due to ALS, MS, or Parkinson disease; however, an inverse correlation was detected between Lyme disease and Alzheimer disease. The absence of a positive correlation between the geographic distribution of Lyme disease and the distribution of deaths due to Alzheimer disease, ALS, MS, and Parkinson disease provides further evidence that Lyme disease is not associated with the development of these neurodegenerative conditions.