lukewhyte/lyme-disease-likelihood

A map-based collection of visualizations examining where Lyme disease is most prevalent in the US

Where Are You Most Likely To Get Lyme Disease?

A map-based collection of visualizations examining where Lyme disease is most prevalent in the US: lymediseaselikelihood.com

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), around 35,000 Americans are diagnosed with Lyme disease each year and the number of "high risk" US counties has doubled over the last decade (from 130 to 260).

This matters. Transmitted by the bite of blacklegged ticks (aka: deer ticks) often no bigger than a poppy seed in size, Lyme disease is a horrifying bacteria that affects many parts of the body, including the brain and central nervous system. Symptoms include fever, rash, facial palsy, short-term memory loss, severe joint swelling and arthritis. The damage can be permanent. Further, if not treated quickly, Lyme disease often alludes antibiotics — resurfacing in humans and animals months to years after inital infection.

This project utilizes newly released CDC data on Lyme disease, available here. It was built atop the fantastic CanJS clientside JavaScript framwork and uses the D3.js, C3.js, TopoJson and Leaflet.js libraries to render the maps and visualize the data. The map tiles are provided by MapBox.

For more information on Lyme disease, I recommend checking out this informative section of the CDC website.