Spring is here and temperatures are heating up. That means cases of tick-borne illnesses, particularly Lyme disease, are on the rise in the U.S. And the problem is only being exacerbated by prolonged warmer weather across a wider swath of the country, driven by climate change.
In the Northeast, upper Midwest and northern Pacific Coast, the warming climate enables ticks to become active earlier in the spring and then remain active later into the autumn or winter months, extending the window of tick-borne disease risk each year.
