Lyme Disease is a major problem. While the CDC reported 427,000 new cases in 2017 based on surveillance criteria, actual numbers based on clinical diagnosis put that number at over one million. It is now well accepted that 10 to 20 percent of these cases go on to become a chronic illness, and these numbers don't even include those people who became chronically ill without ever witnessing a tick attachment or a bulls-eye rash. In other words, hundreds of thousands of people develop a chronic illness every year.