Table 1 Comparison of Malaria and Lyme diseases epidemics in the US

Transmission cycle and biology

Vectors

Anopheles mosquitoes

Ixodes ticks

Reservoirs (transmission)

Humans (human to human)

Small rodents (enzootic)

Pathogens

Protozoa (Plasmodium spp)

Bacteria (Borrelia spp)

Vector longevity and pathogen persistence

Short (days – months)

Long (years)

Vector aggregation (habitat)

Immature (wetlands)

Adults (deer)

Geography

Hyperendemic areas

Deep South

Northeast, upper Mid-West

# states

13 [10]

14 [11]

#counties

369 (in 1945) [10]

318 [11]

Populations at highest risk

Rural

Suburban

Control and prevention

Main control and prevention methods

Habitat modification, biological, insecticides

Personal protection, backyard landscaping, public education

Spatial scale of control efforts

Very large (state, country)

Very small (personal, backyard)

Main target of preventative measures

Mosquito vector

Humans

Economics and organization

Dedicated control agency

Local mosquito control district, federal (WPA), private (Rockefeller institute) [12]

None

Funding (in 2010 $)

$58,278,544 ($6,315,000 in 1948, 3.65% inflation) [10]

$73,620,756 (annual average 2005–10) [13]

Major expenditure

Personnel, equipment, and supplies for control (> 90%) [10, 14]

Academic and clinical research (87%) [13]

Jurisdiction over habitat

State and local Public Health Laws, most publically owned

Unclear, habitat mostly privately owned

Statistics and trends

# infections reported/[estimated]

68,289/[278,000-695,000] in 1941 [15]

36,000/[296,000–376,000] annually in 2005–2010 [6]

US incidence rate

51.8/100,000 (1941) [15]

8.3/100,000 [11]

Incidence rates in hyperendemic areas

100–400/100,000 [16]

10–90/100,000 [11]

Peak mortality in the US

> 4/100,000 or ≈ 5000 [17]

Rare

Trends post discovery

Declining, eradicated by 1950s

Over 3-fold increase since 1990s