More than 25,000 people in the United States contracted Lyme disease in 2005,
but the actual number of cases, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention concedes, may be
10 times higher than that. The numbers for Lyme disease in California are three times higher for
2005 than for the previous year. Despite that fact, the CDC recently warned the public that some
private medical laboratories may be overdiagnosing positive results of Lyme disease to better
their business.

Long-term Lyme disease can be debilitating, including body aches, neurological damage and even
loss of sight. Its symptoms are often misdiagnosed or confused with those of other diseases such
as fibromyalgia, Parkinson's disease, Lou Gehrig's disease or multiple sclerosis, the medical
literature refers to it as "the great imitator."

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