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With more than 300,000 cases diagnosed each year, Lyme disease is the most common tick-borne illness in the United States. However, doctors are deeply divided on how to diagnose and treat it, leading to the controversy known as the "Lyme Wars." Firmly entrenched camps have emerged, causing physicians, patient communities, and insurance companies to be pitted against one another in a struggle to define Lyme disease and its clinical challenges. Health-care providers may not be aware of Lyme's diverse manifestations or the limitations of diagnostic tests. Meanwhile, patients have, on the one hand, felt dismissed by their doctors and, on the other hand, frightened and confused by the conflicting opinions and dubious self-help information found online.