Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many new cases of Lyme disease have been diagnosed in each year since 2010; whether those figures are higher than the official forecasts of such cases; and if so, what action they are taking to raise awareness of Lyme disease.

Public Health England (PHE) produces figures for England and Wales based on the number of laboratory confirmed Lyme disease cases. They do not include cases that are diagnosed based on clinical symptoms alone e.g. the presence of a bull’s-eye rash. Confirmed figures from the United Kingdom Zoonoses report is shown in table 1.

Table 1: Laboratory diagnosed Lyme disease cases, 2010-2014

Source: UK Zoonoses Report, 2015

PHE does not produce official forecasts of the number of new Lyme disease cases that might be expected annually in England.

PHE produces public information leaflets on how people can protect themselves against tick bites, and what to do after a tick bite. These are available on the Government’s website and copies of these are attached. Advice for patients suspecting they may have Lyme disease is available on the NHS Choices website and a copy of the relevant webpage is attached.