Lyme Disease - Symptoms, Causes and Treatment

Our today’s topic will cover the following things

What is Lyme Disease?
What are the Symptoms of Lyme Disease?
What are the causes of Lyme Disease?
What is the best way to diagnose Lyme Disease?
How Can be treated the Lyme Disease?
Is the Lyme Disease Lethal? 

What is Lyme Disease?

Lyme disease is the type of disease mainly caused due to tick bites. When an infected tick bites a human, a bacteria named Borrelia Burgdorferi is transmitted to the human body and caused Lyme Disease. The researchers tell 4 types of species of Lyme bacteria to exist.

1st two named Borrelia Burgdorferi and Borrelia mayonii cause Lyme Disease in the USA, and the other two bacteria named Borrelia afzelii and Borrelia garinii cause Lyme Disease in Asian and European Countries. You can be infected with Lyme bacteria if you live in a grassy and wooded area.

People who have pet animals that walk in the grassy area can also be affected by a tick bite and can suffer from Lyme Disease.
What are the Symptoms of Lyme Disease?
The symptoms of Lyme disease vary from patient to patient. Different Lyme disease patients behave differently. Researchers divide Lyme disease symptoms into three stages.1st stage is called early localized. 2nd stage is called early disseminated and 3rd stage is called late disseminated.

Initial Symptoms of Lyme Disease

When a tick bites a person, a red bump appears at the place of the tick bite. This bump looks similar to a mosquito bite. This red bump cannot be alone as an indication of Lyme disease. When a person infected with a tick bite can have the following signs within a month.

• When a person is infected with Lyme bacteria an expanding red bump area appears within 3 to 30 days of infection. This red area expands like a rash and clears from the center.
• Erythema Migrans (Rash) expands slowly and can spread 30 centimeters. Erythema Migrans rash is the trademark of Lyme disease existence. Some people have more than one Erythema Migrans rash on their bodies.
• With Rash people have other symptoms of Lyme disease as they suffer from fever, cold, fatigue, headaches, swollen lymph, and neck stiffness.

Advanced Symptoms of Lyme Disease

When people take it easy and give no attention and not treated Lyme disease at an early stage, they may face advance level issues of disease that include

1-Joint Pain.

When Lyme disease is not treated at an early stage. The person might face severe joint pain, especially knee pain.

2-Erythema Migrans.

The Rash erythema Migrans spread all over the body.

3-Lyme disease Can Damage Brain Health.

Lyme disease if not treated well may be the cause of neurological health issues like meningitis, limb weakness, and temporary one-side paralysis.

Fewer Symptoms.

Some people after several weeks of infections may have, Heartbeat issues, Liver inflammation, and severe fatigue.
What are Lyme Disease Symptoms in Children?
 
When a child is infected with Lyme disease bacteria, he faces the same symptoms as adults. Infected Children may have

• Fever
• Rash
• Muscle and joint pain
• Fatigue
• Some children behave strangely after being infected with Lyme Disease. They have physiological issues like anger, nightmare, and depression.

What are the Causes of Lyme Disease?

People can be infected with Lyme disease when an infected tick bites. In the USA a black leg tick that can carry the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi bacteria is the major reason for this disease. When a black leg tick bites you, bacteria enter through on tick bite and cause Lyme disease.

If a Deer tick or black leg tick bites you and is stuck with your skin for 36 to 48 hours and you found it swollen then your infection chances are very high. When you found a tick stuck with your skin remove it immediately which might prevent you from infection.
 

What is the Best Way to Remove Tick?

As tick bite is the main cause of Lyme disease, it is very important for the people who lived in grassy and woody areas to check their selves whenever go outside and immediately remove the tick if found stuck with skin. Whenever removing the tick try to use a tweezer to pull back the tick from the skin slowly.
 

When to See a Doctor diagnose Lyme Disease?

You need to visit your doctor when you know about tick bites. The diagnosis of Lyme disease is a bit difficult as it has the same symptoms as other various conditions. You need a blood test to diagnose the disease. Two types of blood tests are available to diagnose Lyme disease. But it is not guaranteed these blood tests will give accurate results about the disease, especially early-stage disease.
 
Your doctor will check you and then find that you have Lyme disease, he can prescribe a combination of Antibiotics. The patient will use these medicines for approximately 28 to 30 days even if he feels better but must complete this medicine course.

Is Tick Testing reliable to Diagnose Lyme Disease?

Due to the following reason, CDC does not recommend the tick test

• Some Laboratories perform tick tests but it is no guarantee that tests performed by commercial laboratories will give you a clear picture of Lyme disease.

• These commercial laboratories are not bound to follow string quality standards as needed in clinical laboratories.
• It is no assurance that if the tick test is positive so you have also a Lyme infection.
• Vis versa if the test is negative, it may mislead you that you are safe from Lyme infection.

Lyme Disease - Post Illness Syndrome

Post-Lyme disease syndrome is the condition when a patient got the antibiotic treatment for Lyme disease and symptoms are prolonged. The condition is referred to as post Lyme disease syndrome.
 
According to research, approximately 10 to 20% of people face post-Lyme syndrome. This condition may affect the patient energy, the patient may have joint pain, discomfort in sleeping, swelling in joints and face difficulty in concentration, and speech issues.
 

Lyme Disease is Contagious or Not

The researcher found no indication that Lyme disease is contagious and spread by contacting each other like coronavirus. The only cause of this disease is tick bite and it could not spread when people sneezed or touch each other.

#LymeDisease#BacterialInfection#BorreliaBurgdorferi