Borrellia Burgdorferi Case Study

A person can acquire Lyme disease by the bite of an infected tick. This disease is transmitted by deer ticks or black-legged ticks. Ticks are tiny in size and as their bite is painless, people might not even realize that they have been bitten. Once an infected tick attaches itself to the skin, it is able to transmit the bacteria. This bacteria eventually ends up in the bloodstream. The duration of attachment necessary to transfer

I chose to do my research paper on Lyme disease. During my research, I found a lot of interesting facts about Lyme disease. The disease is caused by bacteria, called Borrelia burgdorferi, which is only transmitted to humans when they are bitten by an infected tick. Lyme disease was first discovered in 1975, in Lyme, Connecticut, after a group of children were diagnosed with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. This eventually led them to discover the bacteria Borrelia burgdorferi. The disease was given its name in 1982, after the town of Lyme, Connecticut. According to Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Lyme disease is the most commonly reported vectorborne illness in the United States. In 2014, it was the fifth most common Nationally Notifiable disease. Lyme disease is most prevalent in the northeast and upper Midwest.

Lyme disease is transmitted to humans by the bite of infected ticks of the Ixodes genus.[3] Usually, the tick must be attached for 36 to 48 hours before the bacteria can spread.[4] In North America, the only

Borrelia burgdorferi is brought in through the tick bite to the bloodstream. From there, it

Lyme disease is an illness that is caused by a Borrelia bacteria. This disease is spread to humans through the bite of an infected tick that carries the pathogen. The main reservoir of the Lyme disease pathogen is usually a mouse, but any small mammal can act as the reservoir if it has been contaminated by the infected tick (either in the larval or nymph stage). The bacteria can then be passed on to a human host. Transmission of the pathogen could occur with as soon as twenty-four hours after the bite takes place.

Lyme disease is caused by the bacterium Borrelia Burgdorferi (BB). The tick acquires the virus when it feeds on wild animal hosts such as rodents and birds. Once the tick becomes infected it is able to transmit the BB to other animals and/or humans.

A bubonic plague can be transmitted through the wild rodent fleas and on unusual occasions bites or scratches causing nonspecific symptoms such as fever, chills, headache and then progresses into lymphadenitis at the site of the initial flea bite. Then, the risk for developing secondary involvement of the lung becomes a pneumonic plague. The pneumonic plague is a respiratory droplet of an infected person.

Lyme disease is caused by the spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi, which is transmitted by Ixodes dammini, otherwise known as the deer tick3. B. burgdorferi lives in the midgut of the deer tick, and becomes active after a tick’s gut is filled with warm blood from a host. Ticks are only able to transmit B. burgdorferi after they have been attached and taken a “blood meal” from the host. B. burgdorferi passes from the mid gut to the salivary glands where it can exit in the tick’s saliva and into the host’s blood. According to an UpToDate article by Dr. Linden Hu, I dammini must be attached to a host for greater than 36 hours for B. burgdorferi to be able to be activated into the host16. Therefore, any deer tick that is not attached to a host cannot transmit B. burgdorferi.

Lyme Disease is spread through the bite of a tick. Due to its size, many people do not realize they have been bitten because most are as tiny as a poppy seed. Once the tick has attached to its host, it will transmit the Lyme and pathogens to the bloodstream.

Every disease has a causative agent. The causative agent of Lyme disease is the bacterium, Borrelia burgdorferi. Borrelia burgdorferi is a spirochete that is approximately 20-30 cm in length and .2-.3 mm in width. It is not classified as either Gram-positive or Gram-negative. When B. burgdorferi is Gram-stained, the cells stain a weak Gram-negative by default, as safranin is the last dye used. Lyme disease does not only affect certain cells, tissues, organs within the host. As Lyme disease is a multi-system disease which can affect virtually every tissue and every organ of the human body. Lyme disease is a tick-borne systemic infection caused by a spiral organism, Borrelia burgdorferi, characterized by neurologic, joint, and cardiac manifestations. Lyme disease is carried by a tiny tick. It begins with a bite and a rash that can be so slight, you may not even notice. However, the consequences can be serious, sometimes fatal.

In the report, there seem to be potentially fatal tick-born illness that occurred in two of the cases. The infectious is Powassan virus and believe to come from Lyme that can be transferred from tick to human in minutes. This virus believes to be more severe than Lyme and not only this, but it can reach to a patient’s brain quick and leaving the patient’s susceptible to long-term neurological damage. Also, not all patient experience the same symptoms and those that does have a symptom experience fever, headache, vomiting, weakness, confusion, seizures and memory loss. People who are likely to have a symptom are those that have contracted tick-borne illness before, but the risk is very low. There about 10-15 percent of the case shows the virus

Bubonic plague is transmitted primarily by the bite from infected fleas; however, transmission can occur by bites or scratches from infected wild rodents and cats, or contact with tissue from infected animals. It is rarely spread from person-to-person. Patients develop sudden onset of fever, headache, chills, and weakness and one or more swollen, tender and painful lymph nodes (called buboes). This form usually results from the bite of an infected flea. The bacteria multiply in the lymph node closest to where the bacteria entered the human

In 1981, a spirochetal bacterium was discovered in a nymphal tick, Ixodes scapularis and named Borrelia burgdorferi. This species has now been divided into multiple species, three of which cause human infection. Agents belonging to the eubacterial phylum of spirochetes, which are bacteria shaped like corkscrews and are actively motile, cause Lyme borrelioses, also called Lyme disease. As discovered from its sequenced genome, B. burgdorferi depends entirely on its host for nutrients. Another unique characteristic of these bacteria is that it does not require iron for growth in vitro, which helps the parasite overcome a common host response of limiting iron. This pathogen causes infection not through toxins but through migrating through the

This document will provide in-depth research on the treatment and prevention of Lyme disease. Lyme disease is explained by The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2015) as being “caused by the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi and is transmitted to humans through the bite of infected blacklegged ticks” (What is bacteria? Section, para. 1). As explained, Lyme disease is spread through vector-borne transmissions. A vector-borne transmission is the spread of certain disease due to the bite of a vector. The vector in the case of Lyme disease is the blacklegged tick. Lyme’s etiology is explained by Perez and Bush (2014) as being “recognized in 1976 because of close clustering of cases in Lyme, Connecticut and is now the most commonly reported tick-borne illness in the US” (pg. 1). It is important to understand where a disease comes from so you can know where you are more likely to contract the disease.

The first case of maternal-fetal transmission of the Lyme disease spirochete, Borrelia burgdorferi (B. burgdorferi), was observed in 1983, following the postpartum death of an infant born to a Wisconsin woman (Schlesinger, Duray, Burke, Steere, & Stillman, 1985). The 28-year-old mother developed Lyme disease during the first trimester of pregnancy but did not report symptoms, as all resolved quickly in the absence of treatment (Schlesinger et al., 1985). The pregnancy resulted in the delivery of an infant male who died 39 hours after birth due to cardiovascular defects (Schlesinger et al., 1985). Upon autopsy, the spirochete B. burgdorferi was observed in the infant’s spleen, kidney, and bone marrow (Schelesinger et al., 1985).