Four W.Va. Counties Declared Endemic for Lyme Disease

Four additional West Virginia counties have been declared endemic for Lyme disease, bringing the total to 11.

The Charleston Gazette-Mail reports that Kanawha, Marshall, Roane and Wetzel counties were declared endemic for the tick-borne disease as of Aug. 15. They join Berkeley, Hampshire, Hancock, Jefferson, Mineral, Morgan and Wood counties on the list.

Dr. Rahul Gupta, the state health commissioner, says a county is considered endemic for Lyme disease if it has at least two confirmed cases in patients who had not traveled recently and could only have been bitten by a tick within that county.

The state Bureau for Public Health says there have been 149 cases of Lyme disease in West Virginia this year — nearly double the 77 reported in the same time frame in 2014.