Borrelia Burgdorferi Research Paper

Lyme disease has emerged as the most common vector borne infectious disease in the United States and has presented a growing challenge to public health officials over the past three decades. The infection represents a significant disease burden to the population of the United States with nearly 30,000 new cases diagnosed per year and an estimated additional 270,000 annual incident cases that go unreported. The disease results from a bacterial infection with the spirochete bacteria B. burgdorferi. This bacterial agent is transmitted to humans from the bite of a tick and is most commonly associated Ixodes species blacklegged ticks. These ticks represent the largest genus of the family Ixodidae and mainly inhabit temperate forest or grassland

“RMSF is the most common fatal human tick-borne disease in the United States, with a minimal average of 351 confirmed human cases occurring annually and undoubtedly many more going unreported” (Niebylski et al.).

“Lyme disease got its name from where it was first discovered in Lyme, Connecticut in 1975” (healthychildren.org). “Since then there has been thousands of cases reported of the disease. The ticks live in low and high seasonal temperatures and high humidity” (healthychildren.org). Lyme Disease most common to occur in the Northeast, North-central states, or West Coast. On behalf of the Northeast, I can tell you that ticks are everywhere in this region. They like to live in tall grasses and woody areas. “The small insects more than often latch onto the foot or lower leg and crawl up the body, and travel up the body with a destination of the head. On their normal hosts, ticks also usually crawl up; they want to blood feed around the

They contract it when feeding on infected hosts. While deer are most commonly known for giving Lyme disease to ticks, rodents are the main threat. “Ostfeld’s research indicates that white-footed mice infect 75-95 percent of larval ticks that feed on them, while deer only infect about one percent” (Mercola). Urban sprawl and hunting has eliminated many of the mice’s natural predators allowing populations to grow and infected ticks to spread.

What became known as Texas tick fever probably arrived in North America sometime in the seventeenth century carried by cattle brought by Spanish colonists from the West Indies. It was transmitted by the cattle tick which required 200 or more frost free days per year for survival. Therefore, its spatial extent was the southern states. Initially, southerners were not terribly concerned about the disease since cattle was rarely a primary economic investment in the southern United States. Antebellum Texas was an exception since it dominated the national cattle industry. By the 1850s farmers in states such as Missouri were turning back cattle drives from Texas for fear of infecting their herds. In some instances there were violent confrontations, assaulting and even killing some of the cowboys. Eventually northern states intervened to protect their herds, instituting quarantine laws against southern cattle. In 1892 the federal government delineated a quarantine line that followed the northern border of permanent fever infestation. The accompanying regulations stated that cattle could only be moved to northern markets between

B. burgdorferi is injected into the skin by the bite of an infected tick. Saliva from the tick that enters the skin upon the bite contains not only the bacteria that cause Lyme disease, but substances that prevent an immune response from being carried out at the site. This provides a protective environment where the spirochete can establish infection (CITE).

Ticks, they are most significant vectors of infectious diseases in the United States. These arachnids can host a scary medley of infectious bacterium, and they are increasing at an alarming rate with one CDC graph showing their numbers have almost tripled since 1995 (Lyme Stats). Some point to greater awareness, other point to climate change, while we don’t know exactly why their reach is growing we do know we have to be wary of the diseases they carry. While not all ticks are hosts, ticks carrying the Borrelia bacteria known for causing Lyme disease present a massive public health risk. Lyme is one most under researched Infectious diseases with the CDC estimating that somewhere between 300,000 and 3,000,000 people are infected annual.

Lyme borreliosis or Lyme disease can be devastating both physically and mentally for victims. The disease is transmitted by a vector, specifically a tick, which infects their host by biting and infecting them with pathological spirochete bacteria known as Borrelia burgdorferi (Muschart & Blommaert, 2015). There are several species of Borrelia globally, and as a group, the bacteria are referred to as Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato (Pearson, 2015). The disease originated from, Lyme Connecticut, of which it was named, after a patient was mistakenly diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis when the cause of their disease was B. burgdorferi or Lyme disease (Snow, 2013). Lyme disease is classified as one of the most common and growing vector-born disease in the United States as well as Europe (Snow, 2013). Understanding how Lyme disease progresses through the body as well as the disease’s signs and symptoms are essential to understanding how to treat the disease and stop it from spreading throughout the body with destructive results. With a disease as potentially devastating as Lyme disease, early treatment is required for a better outcome (Pearson, 2015). This research paper will discuss the pathophysiology of three Lyme conditions known as Lyme arthritis, Lyme neuroborreliosis, and Lyme carditis and provide an overview of the signs and symptoms of Lyme disease and treatments, and how to prevent infection.

“Borrelia burgdorferi, the bacterium that causes Lyme disease, was first isolated in 1982 by Willy Burgdorfer, Ph.D., a zoologist and microbiologist at NIAID’s Rocky Mountain Laboratories (RML) in Hamilton, Montana.” (NIAID, 2008.) Dr. Burgdorfer at the time was studying Rocky Mountain Fever in attempt to help Jorge Benach, Ph.D., discover why more than 100 spotted fever cases occurred in New York between 1971 and 1976. “Dr. Benach, of the New York State Department of Health had been a source of American dog ticks for Burgdorfer to study.” (NIAID, 2008.)

One of the more common pests located in the Northeastern United States is the Black Legged Tick (Ixodes scapularis). More commonly known as the “Deer Tick” this animal primarily inhabits wooded areas populated by warm-blooded wildlife. Specifically the temperate Pine Barrens in Southern New Jersey, which hosts the 2nd largest tick population in the country (CDC, 2010), the black legged tick is a common pest that spreads lyme disease. This disease is a bacterial infection caused by the tick latching onto a host and feeding for an extended period of time. These ticks attach to most warm blooded woodland creatures and any human beings unfortunate enough to get close enough.

Lyme disease is a bacterial infection caused by a spirochete, a corkscrew-shaped bacterium called Borrelia burgodorferi. Lyme disease is primarily transmitted through tick bites, there has been no reported cases of human to human transfer of Lyme disease. Ixodes ticks, also known as deer ticks are the typical carriers of the Lyme disease. The ticks can most primarily be found in wooded and grassy areas. Due to the fact these ticks are only the size of a poppy seed they usually go undetected when they bite. Once the tick is attached to the skin it can feed for several days; the longer the tick is attached the more likely Lyme disease will be transmitted. Lyme disease can affect any organ of the body including the brain, nervous system, muscles, joints, and even the heart. In some cases, if a pregnant woman develops Lyme disease it can pass on to the unborn child and in some cases stillbirth has occurred due to the disease.

Lyme disease is the most common tick-borne illness in the world. This disease has been reported in all 50 states, mainly the New England states (Khatchikian, 2015). Lyme disease has also been reported in China, parts of the Soviet Union, Europe, Japan, and Australia. In 1957, a group of children and adults in the Lyme, Connecticut area, and surrounding areas had been diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis (Shiel, William C). Dr. Allen Steere began researching to solve this problem. Steere identified the Lyme disease was transferred by ticks (BayAreaLyme.com).

Bubonic plague is an infectious disease that is spread by the bacteria Yersinia pestis. These bacteria remain in a dormant state primarily in a rat flea’s foregut. Once the flea has bitten a victim it regurgitates the contents in its foregut into the bite location. Once the bacterium has entered into a mammal’s warm body it begins to reproduce and spread throughout the mammal’s body. The reproduction of this bacterium creates large painful swollen lymph nodes which are called buboes. Once these buboes get large enough they begin to ooze infected body fluid so that any contact between an infected person and a healthy person will facilitate the spread of this disease. (The Mayo Clinic Staff, 2012)

A plague is a contagious bacterial disease characterized by fever and delirium. The bubonic plague is an infectious disease that is caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis and it is transmitted to human from infected rats by the oriental rat flea. Some symptoms are buboes, which are painful enlarged lymph nodes, headache, fever, chills, and weakness. Bubonic plague also results in gangrene which is the death of tissue. (Medicine Net) The estimated origin of the bubonic plague is in or near China around 1347 to 1351 by oriental rat fleas. How it was transmitted was through several different routes including West Asia by Silk Road and Africa by Chinese travelers under explorer Zheng He. (Medical News) It was also said to reach Europe through

The antibody response to large numbers of spirochetes circulating in the blood during relapsing fever applies a powerful selective pressure on the population of bacteria. These pathogens have responded to the host’s immune system with the tactic of multiphasic antigenic variation, whereby a clonal population of the bacteria has a repertoire of three or more immunodominant antigens (in the form of variable membrane lipoproteins) that they can display during the course of infection (Craig & Scherf, 2003). In fact, antigenic variation is the best-known immune evasion strategy of relapsing fever Borrelia species (Grosskinsky et al., 2009). The variable membrane lipoproteins are divided between two different