As the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warns Americans of rising tick-borne diseases, residents of Massachusetts should take particular caution, because many of the state’s counties have some of the highest rates of Lyme disease in the country.
Nantucket County had the single-highest rate of confirmed or probable cases of Lyme disease per capita between 2010 and 2015, according to the CDC, as reported by The Boston Globe. Nearby Dukes Country rounds out the top five, with Plymouth (57th) and Barnstable (81st) counties also among the top 100.
Massachusetts was the number three state in America for tick- and mosquito-related diseases between 2004 and 2016, according to the CDC.
Here is a ranker of Massachusetts counties, which includes the average annual per capita rate of confirmed and probable Lyme disease cases from 2010-15, as well as the rank among the 3,142 counties in the Unites States:
- Nantucket 501 (1st)
- Dukes 342 (5th)
- Plymouth 127 (57th)
- Barnstable 108 (81st)
- Franklin 89 (105th)
- Bristol 88 (109th)
- Berkshire 78 (126th)
- Norfolk 72.7 (139th)
- Hampshire 72.6 (141st)
- Worcester 58 (185th)
- Essex 53 (201st)
- Middlesex 49 (212th)
- Hampden 36 (269th)
- Suffolk 15 (364th)