Federal appeals court upholds $41 million verdict in CT tick bite case

The CDC is likely to officially update its cost estimates for Lyme disease based on the new case numbers, but in the meantime, I’ve pulled together some rough estimates. The annual cost of Lyme disease in the US in 2002 was estimated at $203 million by Dr. Zhang of the CDC. Today the annual cost is likely to exceed $3.1 Billion. The increased cost reflects the CDC revision of case numbers from 30,000 to 300,000 and adjustments for inflation. The average cost of Lyme disease in 2002 was $8,712, which would be $10,343 in today’s dollars. According to Zhang’s study, the later we intervene with the disease, the higher the costs. In today’s dollars the societal cost of Lyme when addressed at tick bite is $400. If we wait until early Lyme disease, the cost increases 4-fold to $1,658. By the time, we are dealing with late Lyme, the cost is through the roof– $20,502.