As with most other diseases, reporting requirements for Lyme
disease are determined by state laws or regulations. In most
states, Lyme disease cases are reported by licensed health
care providers, diagnostic laboratories, or hospitals. States
and the District of Columbia share their data with CDC, which
compiles and publishes the information for the Nation.
Cases of Lyme disease and other reportable conditions are published
each week in the MMWR . However, these weekly numbers
are provisional and often change when all the data become available
after the end of the year. CDC publishes finalized data, such
as that above, only after all states & territories have
certified their reports. Finalized data for a given year are
generally not available until the fall of the following year.
Reporting of all nationally notifiable diseases, including Lyme
disease, is based on standard surveillance case definitions
developed by the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists
(CSTE) and CDC. The usefulness of public health surveillance data
depends on its uniformity, simplicity, and timeliness. Surveillance
case definitions establish uniform criteria for disease reporting
and should not be used as the sole criteria for establishing
clinical diagnoses, determining the standard of care necessary
for a particular patient, setting guidelines for quality
assurance, or providing standards for reimbursement. To
read the national surveillance case definition for Lyme disease, click
here.
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