What is Lyme disease? Lyme
disease is an zoonotic infection caused by the spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi.
Spirochetes are bacteria with a spiral or corkscrew type shape. They are
extremely small and difficult to detect in microscopy. The highest
incident of Lyme disease is reported between the months of May and September
when the nymphal state of the black legged tick is active. In the United
States, Connecticut has shown the highest incidents of the disease. Lyme
disease is also found in Europe, parts of Russia, China, Korea and Japan.
Lyme disease is known as the “great Imitator” and chronic or post-lyme
stage mimics many of the symtpoms of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyaliga.
The core complaints of this stage are severe headaches, cognitive, muscle
and joint pain, fatigue, weakness, light sensitivity and sleep disturbance.
Borrelia burgorferi involves are
complex cycle involving ticks, mice and deer. The primary reservoir of
B. burgorferi is rodents, mainly the white-footed mouse. Infection is transmitted
by the deer tick (black legged tick) Ixodes scapularis. Other Ixodes species
are responsible for transmission as well in various parts of the United
States, Europe and Asia. The tick has a three stage life cycle, it passes
from larva to nymph to adult. People aquire Lyme disease mainly from the
nymph (which survive on mice and other rodents) because they are active
during the time of year when people are in there ecosystem such as walking
through brush or tall grass. Because the nymph is the size of a small freckle,
it often is not detected and remains attached from 36-48 hours, the period
that is required to transmit infection. Less than half the cases
of Lyme disease will ever develop the “ Bulls Eye” rash leaving the bitten
person to have no idea it ever happened. As the tick feeds, spirochetes
escape from the salivary gland of the insect into the skin of the human
host.
The deer and other large mammals
are the primary host for the adult tick and are essential to the mating
and survival of the tick. The female tick can lay around 2,000 eggs or
more where larvae starts the beginning of the life cycle. Birds can be
a host for Ixodes scapularis and have been implicated in long distance
dispersion. Lyme disease is characterized by fatigue, muscle and joint
pain, rash, headache, fever, chills and stiff neck. Later stage implications
can occur with neurological, cardiovascular and neuropsychiatric complications.
Symptoms may occur within days to weeks. Later stages can be months to
years after infection.
In addition to “typical” Lyme disease,
there are also co-infections. These other tick-borne illnesses added
to the Lyme disease can result in more severe disease as well as complications
in treatment. Ixodes scapularis can also transmit the casual agent of two
other diseases: Human babesiosis and ehrlichiosis. Basbesiosis is a malaria-like
illness that is caused by Babesia microti in the northeast and mid-west
of United States. Babesia microti is a parasite of the white-footed mouse
(transmitted by I.scapularis). Human granulocytic ehrlichiosis (HGE) is
caused by the bacteria Anaplasma phagocytophilum and invades certain white
blood cells. Symptoms include fever, headache, nausea, vomiting, muscle
pain and fatigue. Medical research is looking at the possiblity of
Lyme disease as the cause or contributing cofactor in other degenerative
diseases, including ALS, Alzheimer's, multiple sclerosis and Parkinson's
disease. Spirochetes have been found in spinal fluid and tissues samples
of MS patients, blood cultures of ALS and Parkinson's disease.
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