Ticks that cause Lyme and other diseases have migrated south. Are doctors ready?

New research from the CDC finds that ticks that cause diseases keep marching into new areas.

Angela Newnam of Biltmore Forest, North Carolina, remembers the “bizarre” symptoms she began experiencing almost a decade ago. Blurry vision, a stiff neck, hypersensitive skin, numbness and weakness that would come and go.

She saw a variety of medical specialists, undergoing an MRI, CT scan and psychiatric assessments. The doctors often dismissed her symptoms as anxiety or depression, Newnam, 57, said.

Angela Newnam hiking the Appalachian Trail near her home in North Carolina. Her experience with Lyme disease prompted research into the migration of ticks southward.Angela NewnamFinally, at a college reunion she mentioned her illness to a friend who recognized the mysterious symptoms as a possible case of Lyme disease.

When she called her primary doctor for a Lyme disease test, he told her, “I don’t think you have Lyme. We don’t really have that around here,” Newnam said. “I said, ‘I don’t care what you think. I want you to test me.’”

The results were positive, a diagnosis that took five years to make. Within days of receiving antibiotics, her symptoms started to abate. It took nearly a year to feel like her usual, energetic self.