LYME DISEASE

noun (Health and Fitness) A form of arthritis which mainly affects the large joints, is preceded by a rash, and is thought to be transmitted by a bacterium carried by deer ticks. Etymology: Formed from the name of the town of Lyme, Connecticut (where the first outbreak occurred in 1975) and disease. History and Usage: Lyme disease, at first called Lyme arthritis in the medical literature, caused much concern in the US during the late seventies and eighties and was identified in British patients as well in the mid eighties. The ticks feed on small mammals and birds, and in their adult stage, on deer, but not all deer ticks are infected with Lyme disease. In order to become carriers of Lyme disease, they must first feed on an animal which already has the spirochete. Madison Eagle (New Jersey) 3 May 1990, p. 5