Ticks on the Move: A Public Health Alarm Bell Rings in the South As a region long thought to be immune from Lyme disease, the Southeast is facing an uncomfortable reality: ticks carrying the bacteria that cause the debilitating illness are now making themselves at home.
Research published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this week paints a stark picture of how far and wide these ticks have spread. The study, led by Dr.
Ross Boyce from the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, focused on Biltmore Forest, a small mountain town in western North Carolina where Lyme disease cases had been reported anecdotally for years.