Table 1.

Important events in the history of Lyme disease

Year	Historical events
1883	Alfred Buchwald, a German physician, described what is now termed as acrodermatitis chronica atrophicans.
1912	Arvid Afzelius, a Swedish dermatologist, described erythema chronicum migrans, now known as erythema migrans.
1920s	Garin and Bujadoux described erythema migrans, meningoencephalitis, and painful sensory radiculitis in a patient following a tick bite and attributed to a spirochetal infection.
1930s	Ixodes (deer tick) bite-associated neurological manifestations (meningoencephalitis) were recognized.
1940s	Several cases of chronic lymphocytic meningitis and polyradiculoneuritis with or without erythematous skin lesions were described in United States by Bannwarth. B. burgdorferi was found in tick specimens collected on the eastern Long Island, New York (USA).
1950s	Cutaneous manifestations of erythema migrans were described in the European literature. Wilhelm Burgdorfer confirmed Borrelia as the causative agent after isolating a borrelial organism in Ixodes ticks and patients with clinical Lyme disease. Development of antibody tests for the disease led to identification of different Borrelia strains.
1970s	Cluster of juvenile arthritis cases occurred in the region around Lyme, Connecticut (USA). Epidemiological investigations by Allen Steere and others from Yale led to the discovery of the causative agent and its ecology, expanding geographic range and clinical manifestations.
1983	For the first time, seven cases of erythema migrans from a single center was reported in India. A few more isolated cases have been reported since then.*

*No epidemiological surveys have been carried out in India and the disease largely remains underreported for lack of clinical suspicion perhaps