Lyme Disease -An emerging infectious disease caused by at least three species of
bacteria belonging to the genus Borrelia. Borrelia burgdorferi is the predominant
cause of Lyme disease in the United States, whereas Borrelia afzelii and Borrelia
garinii are implicated in most European cases.
Because of lyme borreliosis's ability to mimic other known disease, it has been dubbed
the "new great imitator" also known as borrelia or borreliosis.
It is well understood that other diseases, such as cancer, diabetes, and hepatitis,
are prevalent throughout the world, however Lyme Disease is perceived to be an exclusively
American disease. The reality is that Lyme Disease is a major problem all around
the globe.
Lyme disease is the most common tick-borne disease in the Northern Hemisphere. Borrelia
is transmitted to humans by the bite of infected hard ticks belonging to several
species of the genus Ixodes.
The disease has a variety of symptoms, including changes which affect the:
Skin.
Heart.
Joints.
Nervous system.
Early manifestations of infection may include:
Fever
Headache
Fatigue
Depression
Skin Rash called erythema chronicum migrans (ECM)
Left untreated, late manifestations involving the joints, heart, and nervous system
can occur. In a majority of cases, symptoms can be eliminated with antibiotics,more
so if diagnosis and treatment occur early in the course of illness.
Late, delayed, or inadequate treatment can lead to late manifestations of Lyme disease
which can be disabling and difficult to treat.
Cause
Lyme disease is caused by an infection from a micro-organism (Borrelia burghdor feri),
itself transmitted by a bite from the wood tick. A tick will settle anywhere on a
human body, but prefers warm, moist and dark places like the crotch or armpits. When
the tick has found a suitable place on the body, it sticks in its probe to draw up
blood, exposing the host to the risk of infection.
About 15 per cent of those with Lyme (borreliosis) develop so-called Neuro-borreliosis,
between one and five weeks after the tick bite.The central nervous system is affected
and the symptoms that result are very mixed and not specific. Treatment lessens the
risk of later symptoms to the nervous system and joints.
If the nervous system, joints, or heart are affected, it maybe two to three years
before the symptoms go away and in rare cases a chronic disease with permanent symptoms
may develop. This may happen several years after the tick bite.
Co-Infection
A huge body of research and clinical experience has demonstrated the nearly universal
phenomenon in chronic Lyme people of co-infection with multiple tick-borne pathogens.
These people have been shown to potentially carry:
Anaplasma
Babesia species
Bartonella-like organisms
Ehrlichia
Mycoplasma
Viruses
Rarely, yeast forms have been detected in peripheral blood. At one point even nematodes
were said to be a tick-borne pathogen.
Studies have shown that co-infection results in a more severe clinical presentation,
with more organ damage, and the pathogens become more difficult to eradicate. In
addition, it is known that Babesia infections, like Lyme Borreliosis, are immunosuppressive.
Before venturing into tick-infested territory, you used a topical repellant on exposed
skin and outer clothing. When you returned, you did a body check and threw your clothes
in the wash. But clean clothes may not be tick-free clothes.
When he found a live lone star tick (Amblyomma americanum) on the agitator of his
washing machine, Agricultural Research Service (ARS) entomologist John Carroll decided
to find out how tough ticks are. So he bagged up nymphs from two species—the lone
star tick and the deer tick, (Ixodes scapularis), the creature that transmits Lyme
disease—and put them in the washing machine.
Carroll used a combination of water temperature settings and detergent types to wash
the ticks. The majority of lone star ticks survived all the water-detergent combinations
with no obvious side effects. Most of the deer ticks lived through the cold and warm
water settings as well. But when one type of detergent was used with a hot water
setting, only 25 percent of the deer ticks survived.
When it came time to dry, all the ticks of both species died after an hour of tumbling
around at high heat. But when the dryer was set to "no heat," about one-third of
the deer ticks and more than half of the lone star ticks survived.
Carroll placed the ticks in mesh bags, which kept them from draining away during
the rinse cycle and perhaps increased their odds for survival. However, ticks might
also survive a sudsy interlude by sheltering in the folds and crevices of a typical
load of laundry. Some tick species have been observed to survive hours of submersion
in fresh water.
Both adult ticks and nymphs can transmit disease. Carroll’s research reinforces recommendations
by the U.S. centres for Disease Control and Prevention to wash and dry clothes at
high temperatures after spending time in areas known to harbour ticks.
Carroll conducts research at the ARS Animal Parasitic Diseases Laboratory, Beltsville,
Md. ARS is the U.S. Department of Agriculture's chief scientific research agency.
Management
Early and aggressive antibiotic therapy.
During late-stage Lyme borreliosis psychiatric disorders may appear as the predominant
symptom.
Unnecessary use or overuse of any antibiotic can lead to its decreased effectiveness.
Antibiotics work best when the amount of medicine in the body is kept at a constant
level.
Treatment with antibiotics can alter the normal bacteria flora of the colon and permit
overgrowth of C. difficile, a bacteria responsible for pseudomembranous colitis.
People who develop Pseudomembranous Colitis as a result of antibiotics treatment
may experience:
