Lyme Disease Cases Reported to CDC by State Health Departments, 1990-1999. If providers choose to send their reporting form directly to MDPH, the Surveillance program will notify the local board of health where the case resides. Health care providers should complete a Lyme Disease Report Form on each newly diagnosed Lyme disease case they see. The multiple Lyme Disease Report Form allows up to five cases from one provider to be reported on a single form. The single Lyme Disease Report Form allows one case per form.
Physicians can choose either form for reporting.
Both forms ask for the physician name, patient demographic information including Lyme disease vaccination status, date of diagnosis, and onset date as well as information about clinical presentation. In addition, both forms have areas to record the name of the laboratory where testing was done, if applicable. While a diagnosis of Lyme disease is based on clinical signs and symptoms, laboratory testing may also be done. Laboratory confirmation of infection with B. burgdorferi is established when a laboratory isolates the spirochete from tissue or body fluid, detects diagnostic levels of IgM or IgG antibodies to the spirochete in serum or CSF, or detects a significant change in antibody levels in paired acute and convalescent serum samples. Serological assays remain the most common and practical method.