Who would guess that a little creature like a tick could cause so many problems? Anyone with Lyme disease would say that these insects cause tremendous pain and frustration. Each year, more people are being diagnosed and treated for this disease.

Other people might wonder what this disease is. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Lyme disease is caused by black-legged ticks who are infected with a bacteria named Borrelia burgdorferi. Those bitten by these ticks experience fatigue, fevers, headaches and skin rashes. Not only that, the disease will spread throughout the body if not treated.

Not until 1975 was Lyme disease discovered, according to Web MD. The disease was named after Lyme, Conn. where numerous children had taken ill with what was labeled as “juvenile rheumatoid arthritis.” Since that time, this tick-borne illness has increased. CMAJ Open reported that Lyme disease increased 80 percent between 1993 and 2007.

With this increase of people inflicted, stars like Avril Lavigne have publicly announced facing this illness. The singer told Billboard that “I need to talk about Lyme disease, because it's real, it's out there, it was a simple bug bite and it could happen to anybody. People need to know about it, because it's not talked about that much and a lot of the information that's out there is inaccurate.”

Lavigne is not the only celebrity to suffer from Lyme disease. Here are others who also either still have this illness or had it in the past. Some have even become advocates, helping to make the public aware of this fairly new disease.

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