LYME DISEASE

Lyme Disease

Lyme Disease

Introduction

Lyme disease is a bacteria transmitted to humans through the bite of infected ticks. The greatest number of diseases borreliosis observed in the hot summer period, which usually contributes the most malicious activity of ticks. Lyme disease has a great polymorphism of clinical manifestations and caused at least three kinds of bacteria, the genus Borrelia, such as spirochetes. Borrelia burgdorferi acts as the dominant agent of Lyme disease in the United States, whereas Borrelia afzelii and Borrelia garinii are the agents in Europe countries.

Lyme disease is one the most common disease transmitted by ticks in the northern hemisphere. The bacteria are transmitted to humans through the bite of infected ticks belonging to several species of the genus Ixodes. The early manifestations of the disease may include fever, headaches, fatigue and a characteristic skin rash called erythematic migraines (erythema migrans). In some cases, in the presence of a genetic predisposition to the disease process involved tissues of the joints, eyes, heart and nervous system. In most cases, symptoms can be stopped with antibiotics, especially if diagnosis and treatment are carried out in the early stages of the disease. Inadequate therapy can lead to “late stage” or chronic Lyme disease when the disease becomes intractable, causing disability, or result in death. Differences of opinion about the diagnosis, testing and treatment of Lyme disease have led to two different standards of patient care (Monroe, 2001). This paper is a brief research on the lyme disease, its causes, symptoms, and treatments, which serve as an information to people infected with this disease and to people who live in the regions where this disease is common.

Discussion and Analysis

It was not until 1982 that the U.S. infectious etiology has been attributed to many cases of arthritis (caused by Lyme) observed some years earlier near Connecticut. Willy Burgdorfer discovered the presence of the bacterium, the spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi, in the gut of a tick. Treatment consists of antibiotics to absorb: It is sometimes necessary to intervene surgically on affected joints. Once identified, and except in cases of neurological or cardiac requiring hospitalization, under appropriate treatment, Lyme disease remains benign.

Infectious Agent:

The genus Borrelia is a corkscrew-shaped bacteria that includes twenty species, all transmitted by arthropod vectors (lice, ticks, etc.). There are several species of Ixodes vectors. In France, Ixodes ricinus is the tick that infests humans more frequently. According to the latitude where the biotopes found Ixodus Ricinus varies: in Ireland meadows, forests in continental Europe, mountains in North Africa. In continental Europe can accidentally meet in open Ixodes Ricinus.

Three species of bacteria responsible for Lyme disease, co-existing in Europe, have been described at the Pasteur Institute, Unit in Molecular and Medical Bacteriology. They seem to cause different clinical manifestations in humans: Borrelia burgdorferi (only species present in the U.S.) preferentially causes arthritis; Borrelia garinii is more associated with neurological symptoms and Borrelia afzelii with cutaneous manifestations. Only three species are recognized pathogens, but many genoespeces of Borrelia have been described at the Pasteur Institute, and ...