As the weather warms up ticks will become active again. Ticks are active any time the temperature is above freezing. Though we have multiple species of ticks in Wisconsin and they can carry a variety of diseases, Lyme disease is the one we worry about most.
Lyme disease has a wide range of symptoms and can have long lasting effects on those it infects, both humans and our pets. Lyme disease is a difficult to study disease, and has not been studied in a large scale way in some time. A new way to study the disease has emerged as MyLymeData, a part of lymedisease.org, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that serves Lyme disease patients. MyLymeData is using Big Data to gather information from thousands of patients though surveys to help find a cure.
MyLymeData asks patients of Lyme disease to complete surveys periodically regarding their treatments ans symptoms, and data is anonymously provided to researchers to try to find patterns in a large pool of patients regarding treatments, diagnosis, and symptoms.
Visit lymedisease.org for more information on the organization and visit lymedisease.org/mylymedata/ to learn more about what you can do as a patient of Lyme disease to help find a cure.