Resolve, To Expand the Case Definition of Lyme Disease for Purposes of Compiling the Annual Lyme Disease Surveillance Report

Preamble. Whereas,  the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention investigates and collects surveillance data on reports of Lyme disease; and

Whereas,  data presented in the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention's Lyme Disease Surveillance Report reflects only those reports that meet its case definition of Lyme disease; and

Whereas,  the case definition of Lyme disease used by the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention includes only those cases in which a person presents with erythema migrans, the characteristic bull's-eye rash associated with Lyme disease and cases in which a person has laboratory confirmation of infection; and

Whereas,  since not all patients with Lyme disease will develop the characteristic bull's-eye rash and laboratory tests may be falsely negative in patients with early Lyme disease, using such a narrow case definition of Lyme disease may result in an underreporting of the incidence of the disease in the State; now, therefore, be it

Sec. 1. Expansion of case definition. Resolved: That the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention shall expand the case definition of Lyme disease that it uses to prepare the Lyme Disease Surveillance Report to include instances of physician-diagnosed Lyme disease in the absence of erythema migrans or laboratory confirmation of infection.

summary

This resolve directs the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention to expand the case definition of Lyme disease that it uses to prepare the Lyme Disease Surveillance Report to include instances of physician-diagnosed Lyme disease in the absence of erythema migrans or laboratory confirmation of infection.