What is Lyme Disease ?
Lyme disease is an illness caused by the bacterium, Borrelia burgdorferi, which can be spread through the bite of certain types of ticks. Lyme disease in humans can have serious symptoms but can be effectively treated. Cases of Lyme disease have been reported in parts of Europe, Asia, and throughout much of North America.
Lyme disease is caused by the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi and is transmitted
to humans by the bite of infected blacklegged ticks. Typical symptoms include
fever, headache, fatigue, and a characteristic skin rash called erythema migrans.
If left untreated, infection can spread to joints, the heart, and the nervous
system. Lyme disease is diagnosed based on symptoms, physical findings (e.g.,
rash), and the possibility of exposure to infected ticks; laboratory testing is
helpful in the later stages of disease. Most cases of Lyme disease can be
treated successfully with a few weeks of antibiotics. Steps to prevent Lyme
disease include using insect repellent, removing ticks promptly, landscaping,
and integrated pest management. The ticks that transmit Lyme disease can
occasionally transmit other tick-borne diseases as well.
Lyme Disease is so named because it is generally believed to have first been
observed in and around Lyme, Connecticut in 1975. Before 1975 the Borrelia
infection was also called tick-borne meningopolyneuritis, Garin-Bujadoux,
Bannwarth Syndrome or sheep tick fever.
The disease was first documented as a skin rash in Europe in 1883. Over the
years, researchers there identified additional features of the disease,
including an unidentified bacterium that was treatable with penicillin, the role
of the Ixodes, or wood, tick as its carrier, and symptoms that included not only
the rash but additional ones that affected the nervous system.
Researchers in the US have been aware of tick infections since the early 1900s.
For example, an infection called tick relapsing fever was reported in 1905, and
the wood tick, which carries an agent that causes Rocky Mountain spotted fever,
was identified soon after.
The full syndrome now known as Lyme disease, however, was not identified until a
cluster of cases thought to be juvenile rheumatoid arthritis occurred in three
towns in southeastern Connecticut, in the United States. Two of these towns,
Lyme and Old Lyme, gave the disease its popular name.
link to : Tick Borne (Rickettsial) Disease and Diseases Worldwide
Bacterial Causes of Lyme Disease
Morgellons Research Foundation Com Blog