Lyme Disease : A Rapidly Spreading Infectious Disease

If the disease is diagnosed at an early stage, anti-infections treatment is given for a duration of 14-21 days. Adults and children above 8 are recommended doxycycline, while cefuuroxime and amoxicillin are given to younger children and breast-feeding women. The infection can be totally eliminated if a person is treated at the early stage. If Lyme disease is persistent in a patient, then they will be treated with intravenous antibiotics. When the disease is treated at a later stage, the infection will be stopped, but the curing of the symptoms will happen at a slower rate. A patient left untreated could face problems with the nervous system, muscle and joints and the digestive system.

Lyme’s disease is a disease that is transmitted to humans when an infected tick bites the human’s skin. According to Lymedisease.org, “Symptoms of early Lyme disease may present as a flu-like illness (fever, chills, sweats, muscle aches, fatigue, nausea and joint pain). Some patients have a rash or Bell’s palsy (facial drooping). However, although a rash shaped like a bull’s-eye is considered characteristic of Lyme disease, many people develop a different kind of Lyme rash or none at all.” Lyme disease can be difficult to diagnose because its symptoms mimic so many other disorders, especially if a rash is not present. Lymedisease.org, also reports that only “42% of cases had a rash”. Furthermore, lymedisease.org goes on to report that, “Many Lyme symptoms, such as fatigue, cognitive impairment, joint pain, poor sleep, mood problems, muscle pain, and neurological presentations also occur in other diseases. Hence, the symptoms of Lyme disease significantly overlap those of chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, ALS, depression and Alzheimer’s disease. Many Lyme patients report being misdiagnosed with a different condition before being properly diagnosed with Lyme disease.”

Typical incubation periods between initial infection and symptom presentation is between 7 and 14 days. The classic symptomology indicating infection is the development of Erythema-Migrans, which is a bulls-eye shaped rash or legion that emanates from the site of the original tick bite. Although this is considered the characteristically identifiable symptom of early Lyme disease infection, studies have shown that as few as 35% of patients develop a rash (Nadelman et al., 1996). Other common indications of early Lyme disease include, flu-like symptoms and the development of Bell’s palsy. Common treatments for early stage cases include oral antibiotics and are highly effective in relieving infections. However, patients who do not receive treatment and develop CLD or acquire Post Lyme Disease Syndrome can experience significantly more severe health problems. Symptoms of these conditions include those found in early stages as well as, cognitive impairment, insomnia, neuropathy, and heart problems (Wormser et al., 2006). The nature of this bacterial infection and its increasing global incidence has made it a disease of significant interest in the public health and medical

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.

There are three major symptoms associated with RMSF which usually appear after an incubation period of five to ten days: fever, headache, and a rash. The rash is a diffuse macular (featuring elevated discoloration) rash, is most prominent on wrists and ankles, which will usually erupt three or four days after the onset of fever. All three of the primary symptoms are not always present in all cases of RMSF, making it much harder to correctly diagnose the disease. Other symptoms are general symptoms common with other types of infections such as vomiting, diarrhea, and abdominal pain. Despite the name the disease is endemic in the Carolinas, Oklahoma, and Tennessee, and is less common in the Rocky Mountain area. About 95% of reported cases occur between April and September. (Lyon and Kelsey).

“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

Signs and symptoms of Lyme disease may occur within a couple days after being bitten, but it can also take up to a month before symptoms develop. Your family caregiver should diagnose you Lyme disease, they will begin by asking you about your signs and symptoms. They will then check your skin for any unusual rashes and or attached ticks. During this you should make sure you tell your caregiver if you have removed a tick or have been in an area that ticks may live, such as sagebrush or wooded areas. Your caregiver may diagnose you with Lyme disease on the spot, but chances are you will have to be put through further testing. Testing can range from blood tests, lumbar puncture commonly known as spinal taps, and synovial fluid tests, which is the fluid that surrounds your joints. After being diagnosed, treatment for Lyme disease can be simple as taking medicine. Medicines can include antibiotics that kill the germs that causes the disease, anti-inflammatories that decrease pain and swelling, or steroids that can also reduce pain, redness, and swelling in your joints and or

According to Dr. Dietrich Klinghardt (a world renowned Lyme expert), Lyme disease is considered the plague of the century due to the large number of people with chronic Lyme disease and the associated co-infections. The number one symptom of Lyme is chronic fatigue. People can have Lyme for a very long time and not be properly diagnosed because current laboratory testing comes up short with being able to detect it. One of the main reasons for this is because chronic Lyme does not live in the blood but rather in the tissues. It is an intracellular organism meaning it lives inside the cell. Lyme has different shapes: spirochete (like a spring), cyst with a hard shell, and acellular (without an outer cell membrane). Lyme likes to set up a sanctuary in the body such as in the brain, teeth (such as under a root canal or in a cavitation), vertebrae, breast tissue, and lymph nodes. It looks for a place where it can be protected and the body is vulnerable preferably in fatty tissue or under a biofilm. While traditionally Lyme disease is considered a tick-borne disease, recent findings have discovered that it is an insect-borne disease that can get transferred

Most Lyme disease cases are very serious. The disease creates symptoms that are similar to the flu. When you first catch the disease you may experience fever, chills, sweats, muscle aches, fatigue, nausea and general pain. Very rarely, Lyme disease may be fatal depending on which strain of the disease you caught.

First, Lyme disease is a tick borne illness, meaning it spreads through tick bites. The disease is only spread through a limited species of ticks, the utmost popular being the deer tick. Lyme disease can affect humans and dogs, as well as other animals. Although, only spread through a few species the disease is very harmful to one’s health. In 2009, it was found that “the C.D.C reported 38,000 cases, which is three times more than in 1991” (Specter 25). The process of the tick is rather simple and sudden. First, the ticks attach to their host and spread an antihistamine on the surface to numb the area to prevent the victim from feeling the bite. Thereafter they emit a glue resembling

There are three stages that Lyme disease will typically progress through. During the first stage, you could have a combination of the following symptoms: headache, rash, chills, aching joints, fever, nausea, and fatigue. This could last for weeks or months. If these symptoms go untreated, the disease could progress into stage two where you will begin to have heart and nervous system complications. The disease will continue into the third and final stage, which can lead to long-term arthritis.

others notice as early as 3 days. The main indication of infection is a circular rash

Attention Getter: They’re everywhere; in tall grass, in the woods, and even on walking paths, waiting for you to pass by. (Picture of Questing tick)

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

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.