Lyme Disease
Lyme disease is an infection that affects many parts of the body, including the skin, joints, and nervous system. It is a bacterial infection that starts from the bite of an infected tick. The infection can spread, and some of the symptoms are similar to the flu. If Lyme disease is not treated, it may then cause joint pain, swelling, numbness, problems thinking, fatigue, muscle weakness, and other problems.
CAUSES
This condition is caused by bacteria called Borrelia burgdorferi.
You can get Lyme disease by being bitten by an infected tick. The tick must be attached to your skin to transmit the infection. Deer often carry infected ticks.
RISK FACTORS
The following factors may make you more likely to develop this condition:
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
Your chances of acquiring Lyme disease can be greatly affected by where you live or travel to. Many outdoor activities put you at risk. Since deer ticks feed on mice and white-tailed deer, they are most commonly found in heavily wooded areas. Another risk factor of Lyme disease is having exposed skin. Since ticks attach easily to bare skin, being exposed in wooded or grassy areas will increase your risk. If you are bitten by a tick, the final chance of prevention is to remove the tick quickly and properly. In most cases, to infect it’s host, a tick must remain attached to the skin for at least thirty-six hours. If you safely remove the tick
What is Lyme disease, and why is it important? Lyme disease is a tick-borne disease created by bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi. “The infection is primarily transmitted by Ixodes ticks, also known as deer ticks, and on the West Coast, black-legged ticks” (Lymedisease.org). It’s hard to identify the ticks because of their tiny size, similar to a poppy seed. To make that exact the female adult deer tick is about 2.7 mm in length, and the male is smaller than that (tickencounter.org). The size makes it even more difficult to feel or find a bite from the tick. However, the consequences can be very serious, sometimes even fatal (cdc.gov). Lyme disease is a serious public health in the United States that is overlooked.
Lyme disease is an infection produced by bacteria called Borrelia Burgdorferi. This bacteria or germ is ordinarily found in shrews, deer, mice, and squirrels. Ixodes bugs, normally called deer ticks, often feed on the blood from an infected animal. When this happens, the tick then becomes a carrier of the bacteria that causes Lyme disease and can infect you with this germ through your skin. Infected deer ticks are normally found in the northeast and upper Midwest United States because of the climate and humidity levels, and become more active in the late spring and early summer months after the birth of new larvae. Lyme disease is known to cause a skin rash called erythema migrans and can leave you problems with your joints, brain, heart, and nerves. The
Lyme disease was discovered in the 1970’s, as any other disease was, by a large number of cases, with patients having the same symptoms. In Lyme, Connecticut, a doctor was having patients who were all suffering from the same symptoms that made patients become debilitated. There were so many cases that the doctor marked it as an unknown disease. It wasn’t until later in the 1980’s that there were more widespread cases throughout the north-east. Lyme disease is becoming a serious problem in the north-east and especially in New York State, given the drastic increase of cases. Without treatment Lyme disease can result in blindness and in severe cases, death.
Lyme disease, or lyme borreliosis, is an emerging infectious disease transmitted by ticks. Lyme disease is considered an emerging infectious disease because it’s incidence has increased over the past 20 years, and it was not identified until 1975 in the United States (CITE). Lyme disease is the most commonly reported vector-borne disease in the United States. Lyme disease causes symptoms similar to that of influenza, and includes headache, chills, fever, lethargy, and muscle pain in the initial stages. A bulls-eye shaped rash at the site of the tick bite can also occur in those infected, but not all infected persons develop the rash. The rash typically develops three to thirty days after the person is bitten. Later
What is Lyme disease? Should it be measured as a true “illness”? These questions are being asked thousands of times each year. Doctors, scientists, and patients all around the United States desire to comprehend what this infection indeed is and how to deal with it. The steps to healing and treating this disease have been very controversial. The idea of Lyme disease being a chronic illness has also been up for debate recently. Do we understand enough about this tick borne illness to accurately benefit those infected? How much treatment should doctors offer to their patients? Lastly, is Chronic Lyme disease a legitimate disease or are its patients just crying out for attention? These are just a few questions Americans hope the Lyme Disease Control Board and doctors will soon be able to answer.
The threat of Lyme disease is an ever growing concern especially due to the fact that late stage Lyme has no cure and early stages are hard to diagnose. The
Lyme disease can be a very serious disease if not treated early enough. The most important way to keep from getting the disease is prevention. Education is the key to prevention. The only way to contract the disease is to be bitten by a tick that is carrying the bacteria Borrelia Burgoloferi. By educating the public on the facts of the disease and how it is transmitted will greatly lower the number of cases each year.
Speaker Creditability: I know first-hand of what it's like to have Lyme disease after being diagnosed with late stage Lyme arthritis in 2014. I have had several treatments as well, but even after three years I can still feel Lyme’s effects.
Unfortunately, people around the world struggle with deadly and rare diseases. From the outside looking in, these deadly and horrific diseases appear as something minor and easy to conquer. However, people everyday die from lack of resources and their inability to cope with the pain that these disease come with. The presentation Tick Tock discussed the horrific infection of lyme disease. Lyme disease is a bacterial infection transmitted to humans through the bite of an infected blacklegged tick on the west coast and on the east coast by ixodes ticks. The ticks infect the human with a bacterium called Borrelia burgdorferi. It is a corkscrew shaped bacterium. Ticks usually attach to the armpit, groin, or scalp. Lyme disease is found throughout the United States and sixty other countries. Most people get lyme disease from a tiny, immature form
Lyme disease, also known as Lyme borreliosis, is an infectious disease caused by bacteria of the Borrelia type.[1] The most common sign of infection is an expanding area of redness, known as erythema migrans, that begins at the site of a tick bite about a week after it has occurred. The rash is typically neither itchy nor painful. About 25% of people do not develop a rash. Other early symptoms may include fever, headache, and feeling tired. If untreated, symptoms may include loss of the ability to move one or both sides of the face, joint pains, severe headaches with neck stiffness, or heart palpitations, among others. Months to years later, repeated episodes of joint pain and swelling may occur. Occasionally, people develop shooting pains or tingling in their arms and legs. Despite appropriate treatment, about 10 to 20% of people also develop joint pains, have memory problems, and feel tired much of the time.[2]
In the early 1970s, a number of rheumatoid arthritis cases occurred in Lyme, Connecticut. Researchers considered several possible causes to outbreak, such as contact with germs in the water or air. However, their attention focused on the deer tick population as a probability once they realized that most of the affected children lived and/or played near wooded areas. Researchers discovered that the symptoms started during the height of tick season in the summer. Many of the children recalled seeing a rash before the arthritis started, and others remember being bitten by a tick at the site of the rash. By the mid 1970s, researchers started to associate these signs and symptoms with the disease, now called “Lyme Disease” to help physicians diagnose patients. However, it wasn’t until 1981 did researchers at Rocky Mountain Laboratories in Hamilton, Montana discover the connection between the deer tick and Lyme Disease.
Lyme disease is a bacterial infection that is typically spread by ticks or most commonly known as deer ticks. It's estimated that over 300,000 people are diagnosed with lyme disease every year. Lyme disease is easily misdiagnosed because its symptoms are closely related to other conditions. This disease could affect any part of the body , like the brain , nervous system , muscle and joints and the heart. Lyme disease can commonly mistaken for a number of other diseases such as chronic fatigue syndrome , fibromyalgia , multiple sclerosis , and various other ones. Signs of early lyme disease feel like the flu and have the same symptoms.
Lyme disease is an inflammatory disease characterized at first by a fever, headache, chills, and a rash and later by arthritis, cardiac, and neurological disorders, caused by bacteria that is spread by ticks. Lyme disease is common in North America, Europe, and Asia and is caused by bacteria called Borrelia burgdorferi. Infected ticks spread the bacteria by biting people or animals. There are two kinds of ticks that carry Lyme disease in the U.S.. They are the deer tick, found in the Northeast and Midwest, and the western black-legged tick, predominantly found along the Pacific coast in northern California and Oregon.Can You Die from Lyme Disease?