Connecticut, the place where Lyme disease was first identified, in 1975, is home to another tick-born ailment,  a distant cousin of Lyme disease,  also carried by the deer tick.

Doctor Peter Krause of the Yale School of Public Health is lead author of  a study in the latest edition of the New England Journal of Medicine which found  the bacteria Borrelia miyamotoi in 18 patients in Connecticut and New York.  It had previously been found in patients in Russia.

Doctor Krause says the symptom are often similar to Lyme disease– fever, muscle ache, headache, and fatigue.  He says about 10% had a rash, compared to 90% of Lyme disease patients,  and the rash was smaller than the typical rash associated with Lyme.

He says the new infection,  which doesn’t even have a name yet.  responds to the same antibiotics given for Lyme disease.