Lyme disease, the second most often reported infectious disease in New England, (chlamydia is first) may infect as many as 30,000 more people in Massachusetts alone over the next few months, and it will cause a host of unpleasantness, including flu-like symptoms, arthritis, heart blockage, extreme fatigue, mental decline, irritability, and depression. As reported by Beth Daley in the Boston Globe, it may also be blamed for the miseries of tens of thousands of others, who do not have Lyme but think they do. Who really has Lyme disease and who doesn’t, Daley reports, is perhaps the biggest mystery surrounding the diseases, and it is certainly the most divisive, largely because tests for Lyme are less than definitive. The controversy began, appropriately, with Massachusetts General Hospital doctor Allen Steere, who discovered the disease, which is spread by deer ticks, 40 years ago. Because Steere is convinced that many people who believe they have Lyme are actually suffering from other diseases, he is now the object of the scorn of the sufferers. What to do? The easy fix, says Daley, would be to give everyone who thinks they have Lyme the recommended doses of antibiotics, but, wait, that would cost money…. Read more from Beth Daley.