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| | Title: | Lyme Disease. What is Lyme disease? | | Article: | Lyme disease is an infectious disease. A spirochete
Borrelia burgdorferi, a kind of germ, is the cause.
Deer ticks or western black-legged ticks bite people
and transmit the bacterium to humans. These ticks are
about the size of sesame seeds.
Lyme disease mostly happens in rural and suburban
regions. Lyme disease is found in United States,
Europe, Asia and Australia.
The symptoms of Lyme disease include:
Fever
Headache
Fatigue
Chills
Stiff neck
Muscle aches
Joint pain
Skin rash named erythema migrans, which appears from
week to month after a tick bite. This rash usually
starts at the site of the tick bite. Originally it is
a small red spot that grow larger. The center fade,
which looks like a "bull's eye" or ring. Some people
have just many red spots instead. The rash burns and
itches often. However some people do not feel it.
Later infection spreads to joints, the heart, and
nervous system.
Affected heart beats irregularly or slowly. Bell's
palsy (a sort of face droop) means the nervous system
damage.
If not treated, Lyme disease causes arthritis (joints
inflammation) and more nervous system problems.
Usually, only one large joint, knee for example,
swells and hurts. Sometimes more than one joint
becomes inflamed. Later, Lyme disease causes trouble
concentrating, memory loss, muscle weakness, tingling
and numbness.
How to find out if you have Lyme disease?
Talk to your doctor about your symptoms. He usually
diagnoses Lyme disease if you have symptoms and
physical findings (especially specific rash). The
possibility of infected tick bites is important in the
consideration. Lab tests are helpful mostly in the
later stages of disease. Early they may give false
results.
People who have been sick with Lyme disease for less
than a month may have negative blood test, because
they still have to develop antibodies to the disease.
Also, in early Lyme disease, patients who take
antibiotics for other reasons may never develop a
positive Lyme disease test. Blood test is almost
always positive in patients who sick for over month
without antibiotics.
Swelled joints or nervous system symptoms may require
special tests. Joint fluid or spine fluid aspiration
helps to recognize the condition.
How is Lyme disease treated?
Most cases of Lyme disease are treated with several
weeks of antibiotics.
Early Lyme disease requires 14 to 30 days of
antibiotics. Antibiotics usually are given by mouth.
If the nervous system is involved, antibiotics may
need to be given intravenously.
Take all the drugs, which your doctor prescribed,
according to instruction. To prevent spreading the
infection to joints, heart and nervous system do not
stop taking the medicine. Call your doctor and discuss
if you have some problems with the drug.
Blood tests are not very useful to check your
treatment. Sometime Lyme disease gives positive tests
even after a moth of treatment. In advanced Lyme
disease, symptoms may improve, but do not disappear
completely.
If symptoms persist or worsen after treatment, contact
your doctor.
How to prevent Lyme disease?
The best way is to avoid tick bites. Clothing in the
woods area, long-sleeved shirt and pants instead of
shorts are good protection. An insect repellent
containing permethrin or similar staff could be used.
Follow instructions for application because the
repellents may also cause skin irritation.
After walking outdoors, check your skin body and scalp
for ticks and rashes. Check your pets. Remove ticks
promptly form you cloth. Also consider landscaping and
pest control in you area. The ticks may transmit other
tick-borne diseases too.
If you find a tick on your skin, use tweezers, grasp
the tick close to your skin. Pull steady, do not
squeeze or twist the tick. If any parts stay in your
skin, carefully remove them as if a splinter. Then put
some antiseptic ointment. Old methods of putting
kerosene, gasoline on the tick were not proved to work
well. After removing the tick, check your skin over
the next month. In case of a rash, go to your doctor
and tell about the bite. Usually people, who are
bitten by a tick, but do not feel sick or get a rash,
do not need antibiotics. If you are unsure, call your
doctor at the time of bite. Some other diseases,
spread by ticks, may require additional actions and
treatments. | | Author: | Aleksandr Kavokin, MD, PhD | | System: | Infection | | Subject: | Lyme_disease | | Abstract: | Lyme disease mostly happens in rural and suburban
regions. Lyme disease is found in United States,
Europe, Asia and Australia. | | Website: | http://www.kavokin.com | | Time: | 20:23 | | Reference: | http://www.rdoctor.com | | Reference 2: | http://www.sympomat.com |
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