Thousands could be at risk of suffering from a chronic disease this summer simply by skipping the doctor, research has suggested.

About 476,000 people are diagnosed with Lyme disease in the US every year, an infection caught from tick bites that causes muscle pain, brain fog and fatigue.

But new research from Oregon found that only 35 percent of patients who continued to suffer symptoms beyond two months stayed in contact with their doctor.

They also found only 34 percent of patients got a positive result for the disease at their first test, despite all being infected — in another sign tests for the illness are often inaccurate.

The findings are the latest blow to current testing methods, which critics have long warned are missing a large chunk of cases, leaving patients undiagnosed and untreated. 

Researchers are now urging doctors to stay engaged with their Lyme patients and consider a second round of antibiotics for those still suffering symptoms, suggesting the infection may not have been fully cleared the first time. 

Roughly one to three percent of tick bites lead to Lyme disease, which often begins with a bullseye-shaped rash. But while symptoms usually appear within 3 to 30 days, the illness can quietly linger and wreak havoc if not treated properly.

Lyme disease is rarely fatal, with just 10 deaths reported in the US since 1985, but for those left untreated, the long-term consequences can be devastating.

Pictured above is a blacklegged tick, or deer tick, which can carry Lyme disease

For the study, published in the journal Frontiers in Medicine, the researchers extracted data from the Lyme Disease Biobank, which holds blood and saliva samples from people diagnosed with the disease.

They examined samples from 253 people from Long Island, New York, and Central Wisconsin, who were infected with Lyme disease between 2014 and 2023.

All participants received antibiotics to treat their disease.

Overall, 78 percent said they had no symptoms of Lyme Disease when they returned for their second test two to four weeks later.

But among the 22 percent who reported ongoing symptoms, most said they were no longer visiting their doctor.

About 10 percent of people in North America are thought to have been infected with Lyme disease at least once in their lives, data has shown.

Those individuals have been left with serious complications after battling undiagnosed Lyme disease for years.

In one case, Meghan Bradshaw, from Charlotte, North Carolina, revealed it took doctors four years to diagnose her illness, by which time Lyme disease had sparked arthritis in her body.

Meghan Bradshaw, from Charlotte in North Carolina, suffered what doctors said was the ‘worst’ case of Lyme disease-triggered arthritis they had seen. It took four years to diagnose her condition

Now age 32, Bradshaw has already undergone 16 joint replacements due to the infection affecting her shoulders, knees, hips, and ankles 

She now refers to herself as the ‘bionic woman’ because of all the surgeries, saying she has been practically ‘reconstructed’ from the waist down.

In another case from 2022, an ‘outdoorsy’ father-of-two died from Lyme disease after it took doctors nine months to diagnose his condition.

Russell Bell, then 65 and living in Raleigh, North Carolina, was tested for Lyme disease in 2016 after developing sudden mood swings, but the results came back negative, and doctors instead suspected early-onset Alzheimer’s.

The computer scientist’s condition worsened over time, leaving him unable to remember alarm codes or solve basic math problems.

He was eventually diagnosed with Lyme disease and began antibiotic treatment, which led to a quick improvement. 

But just 18 months later, his symptoms returned,and his health began to deteriorate once again.

His wife, Nicole, told TODAY in 2022: ‘Because Russ was very outdoorsy, and because I knew he had ticks on him over the years, Lyme disease was actually one of the first things that came to mind when I started looking into the symptoms of my husband’s cognitive decline.

‘[But then] my husband, Russ, who picked up the kids from school each day, had arrived home and wasn’t able to turn the blaring alarm off.

‘I got home later that day and everything was fine.

‘But I noticed Russ asking repetitive questions. Forgetting what time to pick up the kids. And he couldn’t remember the alarm code, the same one we had used for years.’