The Missouri Counties Most Likely to Have Ticks with Lyme Disease

Since I grew up in Missouri, my childhood was spent doing the typical Missouri things like playing at my grandma's house in the country, chilling in Riverview Park watching the Mississippi River roll by and checking for ticks. Sometimes those gnarly critters carry Lyme Disease and I found a map showing the counties most likely to have ticks with this disease.

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Whoever came up with the idea of Tick Check should get a medal or something. I never thought I would actually appreciate a website about ticks before, but it's happened. It tracks counties where Lyme Disease is either present or has been. This map of theirs shows cases of Lyme Disease in Missouri over a 20 year period.

The Tick Check people add a concerning phrase to their data:

Due to the fact that the CDC's data only represents confirmed cases, the actual quantity of Lyme disease cases may be far greater. We estimate a total of 3,720 true cases of Lyme disease in Missouri.

That's comforting. Not. According to the Tick Check map, there are only confirmed cases in Lewis, Clark and Pike counties, but there's no indication that any are happening right now. Again, this is just a snapshot of the past 20 years.

As the CDC mentions, Lyme Disease can give you a fever, make you feel tired and give you a nasty rash. If you have it and don't have a doctor deal with it, it can develop into something much more serious.

It looks like the county where Lyme Disease has caused the most problems is near Kansas City. You can check out the Tick Check site for the latest data and updates.