Plecostomus:
As said up there it is a combination of things.
Up until 3-4 years ago, Lyme was assumed to have been brought in from Lyme County, USA, and hotspots being the New Forest. Gov't agencies were then asking for all ticks ( small deer type ) to be sent to them for analysis to get a better picture of the spread from New Forest.
Consequently they now realise it has been here all the time, it hasn't been imported in. They also have better ideas of tick populations and infections within the tick population.
Add into this the announcement during this winter ( or maybe the one before ) that the deer population in the country has increased to the most for over 1,000 years, so the tick host is now at a massive high. It all adds up to an explosion of the disease as people actually start looking for it.
I asked my doctor about Lyme 4 summers back follwoing my daughter screaming the place down cos she's got one on her belly! he said he did recognise it but had only possibly one occurance perviously in the practise. The next summer our practise had 4 cases of lads in my village within a week. My neighbour's working practises (from the Environment Ageny) now require them to check themselves after each farm visit and have a leaflet about Lyme.
Worryingly, half of the active outdoorsey types know about it, the other half are totally unaware.
On a positive note: Went out for a quick blast last weekend, ploughing through bridleways overgrown with bracken above me, real Tick territory. Put on some Autan Active plus, which also protects against ticks. None were found, and I would have expected to have picked up at least one.
Seems to fulfil it's promise - try it!
cheers
Q
