The Effects Of Lyme Disease On The Geographical Distribution And Transmission Of The Disease

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

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, 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

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

Chronic Lyme disease specialists’ asserts that for some the Borrelia bacteria has become more prevalent. “If untreated, infection can spread to the joints, heart and nervous system, causing a large variety of symptoms which may persist over months or years” (Melisa) Additionally, when the bacteria is able to spread like this, according to medical officials that agree with Chronic Lyme diseases existence, if left untreated bacterial persistence can occur. When this happens treating the bacteria becomes a much harder and longer process. This viewpoint however is so divisive because the body that decides medical treatment of diseases of this class, the Infectious Disease Society of America, claims that Chronic Lyme doesn’t exist. Today many doctors shy away from the topic as those who support the existence of Chronic Lyme and try to treat patients risk losing the medical license. While this argument is riddled with claims of conflict of interest and fear mongering I believe taking care of the patient’s well being is paramount and that more care should be allotted to Chronic Lyme by American medicine as evidence points to the existence of Chronic Lyme.

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

In Nova Scotia, especially my residential area of Lunenburg County, Lyme Disease is an uprising problem. I myself initiated in a way to help raise awareness. Moreover, I produced a Facebook page to raise people’s knowledge regarding Lyme Disease, I created a survey to help the understanding of issues people may not be familiar with, and responded to any questions people had regarding Lyme Disease.

Lyme disease has been identified as an infection surrounded by complications, starting from its discovery to diagnosis. The Lyme infection was discovered first during the mid-1970, following the attribution of juvenile arthritis outbreak to this disease near Old Lyme, Connecticut. The naming of the disease was established in 1977, although the complications of the causative agent lasted an additional five years, after which medical scientists identified the deer tick midgut Borrelia burgdorferi spirochete as the supposed causative agent (Lyme Research Alliance, n.d.).

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

A well-known disease in the United States is Lyme disease. Lyme disease is a bacterial infection transmitted by deer ticks that are infected with the Borrelia burgdorferi bacteria. In the early 1970s a group of children and adults in Lyme, Connecticut, and the surrounding areas were suffering from some puzzling and debilitating health issues. Finally, by the mid-70s, researchers began describing the signs and symptoms of this new disease. They called it Lyme, but they still didn’t know what caused it (History of Lyme Disease | Bay Area Lyme Foundation. n.d.). In the 1980’s, it was discovered that the bacteria came from deer ticks. Centers for Disease Controls and Prevention estimate that 300,000 people are diagnosed with Lyme disease in

For this assignment, I interviewed a close friend, Dana Rivard. Dana is also a first year student; she is from Massachusetts and majoring in Health Sciences. In a friendly conversation, a few weeks ago she mentioned having Lyme disease. I grew up in a rural part of Indiana so my childhood consisted of playing outside almost everyday. My front yard is full of trees, and because I live in a very forested area right across from a corn field, these trees often have ticks. My parents always warned us to be cautious of ticks by using insect repellant and making sure we were wearing long clothing if we were going to be close to the trees. Our dogs would often get a tick here or there that my parents would have to pull off, but only once or twice do I remember one of my siblings or cousins getting a tick on them. My parents and grandparents always warned us about Lyme disease, because it was such a prevalent topic in Indiana. As a child, it seemed as if my parents were overreacting, which is why it was so interesting to see that Dana had gotten Lyme disease.

Let’s take a look at how lyme disease is transmitted in more detail. Firstly, the tick finds a spot on an animal (such as a deer) to feed on, and inserts its feeding tube. The tick often releases a substance that acts like cement, and keeps the tick attached firmly on the human body while it’s feeding. Animals (and humans) will rarely feel a tick feeding off them because ticks saliva acts as an anesthetic. If the animal that the tick is feeding off has the borellia burgdorfei bacteria in its blood, the tick may

Lyme Disease is the number one tick-borne disease in the United States and in Massachusetts. It is considered a vector disease because it is spread through the bite of a black-legged tick (also known as a deer tick) that carries the bacterium, Borrelia burgdorferi. Lyme was first diagnosed in 1975 in Lyme, CT and the bacterium that causes Lyme was discovered in 1982 by Willy Burgdorfer (Todar, 2012, p. 1). Lyme disease spreads rapidly and can impact many different organ systems including the joints, brain, heart, and muscles. Symptoms can lay dormant for months or years or occur quickly after the initial tick bite. Difficulty of diagnosis adds to the burden of Lyme disease in Massachusetts. “Because of its initial presentation as a skin rash, …the difficulty in some cases of even considering Lyme disease given its presentation in the form of other more typical illnesses, …Lyme disease in the 1980s became known as ‘the new Great Imitator’ “ (Lyme Disease, n.d.).

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.

Imagine, as a 12 year old, not being able to move. Every part of your body feels like lead and you’re barely able to lift your head up. You have no energy, sleeping all day and hardly able to perform mundane, everyday activities. Headaches and stomach pains are a normal part of your life. You stop hanging out with your friends and become isolated in your room because you can barely function. This is what happened to my sister. Once a happy, playful child, she became almost lifeless laying on the couch all day. The pain she lived through every day showed in her eyes. All of the pain came from a single source: lyme disease. Lyme disease is a when borrelia burgdorferi infects the body’s immune system, via deer tick bites (Halperin, pg. 1). First discovered in 1977, lyme disease has become one of the most significant vector- borne diseases in America. (Fuller, pg. 132). By 2002, more than 23,000 cases have been reported (Fuller, pg. 132). Even though the number of cases for lyme disease has increased dramatically, many people have still never heard of lyme disease. Many doctors in the past have misdiagnosed patients because they believed there was no such thing as lyme disease. Each case affects the body differently, making it more difficult to figure out the symptoms for the disease.