Tick Tock

As Lyme disease continues its alarming spread, researchers are taking novel tacks. Ginny Graves reports from the front lines—and backyards—of a confounding crisis.

- Ginny Graves

Nine years ago, when Deanna Needell was in grad school at UC Davis, she was beset by stomach pain after a bull’s-eye rash swelled around a bug bite—a telltale sign of Lyme disease. “Because I live in California, where Lyme is less common, none of the doctors I saw early on even mentioned it,” she says. The lapse was costly: Needell developed migraines so impervious to medication that she often wound up in the ER; years later, when she started having muscle spasms, her doctor was concerned she might have ALS. (Left untreated, Lyme bacteria can spread to the muscles, nerves, brain, and heart, triggering debilitating complications.) A friend finally floated the possibility of Lyme, and Needell got tested. After a diagnosis and intermittent courses of antibiotics, most of her symptoms have abated.