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This colorful painting, titled “Ecology of Lyme,” includes multiple interconnected factors associated with the infectious disease--Earth being altered by a changing climate, a deer, a mouse, invasive Japanese barberry and three stages of deer ticks. The painting also includes a person infected with Lyme bacteria.
Preliminary 2016 data from the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention indicated an all-time high of 1,485 reported human cases of Lyme disease in the state, according to a National Science Foundation-funded ecologist. Further, Lyme disease--which can result in severe headaches, arthritis with acute joint pain and swelling, inflammation of the brain and spinal cord, facial palsy, heart palpitations and short-term memory difficulty--may be under-reported tenfold.Image credit: Illustration by Olaf Hajek
