Lyme disease is getting more rampant as the number of high-risk areas in the United States increase in number, a new government study published on Wednesday revealed.

In the past, cases of infection were mainly concentrated in the Northeast and upper Midwest part of the country. It has been discovered recently however that it is already spreading throughout the U.S even four times as many counties now as it was back in 1993, according to a research group from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, NBC News reported.

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"Over time, the number of counties identified as having high incidence of Lyme disease in the northeastern states increased more than 320 percent: from 43 (1993-1997) to 90 (1998-2002) to 130 (2003-2007) to 182 (2008-2012)," Kiersten Kugeler, of the CDC's center in Forth Collins, Colorado, and fellow researchers wrote in the report.

The team also noted that the illness has surfaced on states where Lyme disease has never been reported before.

Without disclosing much details, the CDC points to climate change, deer distribution and forest clearing as the contributing factors to the spread of the disease across the country, TIME has learned. One thing it emphasizes though - people should be cautious of ticks that serve as vectors of the illness.

First identified in 1975, Lyme disease is an infection caused by the bacteria Borrelia burgdorferi found in black-legged ticks. The ticks prefer to inhabit densely-forested places and serve as food to white mice. When people wander in their territories and ticks the size of poppy seeds get a chance to bite humans, infection is most likely to occur.

Lyme disease is manifested by headache, fever, fatigue, and in some cases a rash with a bull's-eye appearance on the tick bite. While most infected individuals recover through antibiotics, untreated infections can lead to arthritis, heart and nervous system complications, and can even escalate to death.

A  total of 17 states were reportedly found high-risk by the CDC, among which are Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Iowa, New York, Minnesota, Michigan and Connecticut  which has been high0risk for decades and where the disease was first reported, according to CBS Detroit.

An estimated 20,000 to 30,000 cases of Lyme disease are reported in the U.S. annually. Authorities however claimed there could be as many as 10 times more.

TagsLyme Disease, ticks, CDC, Borrelia burgdorferi