2026 Lyme Disease Awareness Month Recap

By Jenny Buttaccio

This spring, we launched our Target250 Questionnaire, an informal questionnaire open to current or past Illinois residents with Lyme disease and other tickborne diseases about their quality of life since the onset of symptoms.  

From the responses, we gained insights into what it has been like for those living with Lyme disease or other tickborne diseases in the state. We had more than 250 people respond to questions about their top symptoms, whether their symptoms were taken seriously, and the percentage who had to stop working or attending school due to the severity of their illness.

We chose to highlight some of those responses during our annual Lyme Disease Awareness Month campaign, which ran in May.

Some responses we found particularly noteworthy showed that 86.5% of people said they were told by medical professionals that their physical symptoms weren’t real, 69% developed mental health symptoms after contracting Lyme, and 32% spent more than $10,000 per year treating their tickborne disease.

‍Although this information was not part of an official study, it brings to light significant challenges that those with tickborne diseases in our state face and underscores the need for greater education, awareness, and statewide resources.