Lyme Disease

Lyme Disease General Information

The condition that is known in the medical industry as “Lyme Disease” is an infectious disorder. Studies have shown that ticks are the ones responsible for the spread of this medical condition. In other words, a patient can develop this medical condition if he or she is bitten by a tick that had already been infected with this medical condition. This may occur as the bacteria that causes this medical disorder is able to travel to the tick’s salivary glands. If an infected tick bites you, the bacteria enter your body through the bite. However, not all individuals who were bitten by a tick developed this medical condition. In order to transmit the bacteria that cause this medical condition, the tick must remain attached to the patient for about 48 hours. The safest way to deal with such a situation is to seek the professional assistance of your health care provider.

Lyme Disease is known to be caused by a bacterium called B. burgdorferi (Borrelia burgdorferi). Not all types of ticks are able to carry the bacterium that causes this infectious disorder. The two types of ticks that are able to do so are western black legged ticks and deer ticks. Although horses, cats and dogs can become infected with the bacterium that causes this disorder, they cannot spread the condition to humans. Animals who are suffering from this disorder develop symptoms that are very similar to those in the case of humans. There are some vaccines that might prevent your pets and / or house-hold animals from developing this medical condition. Although some scientists think that this disorder may also be transmitted through other insects such as fleas, flies or mosquitoes, this has not been clinically proven.

Lyme Disease Symptoms

The presence of this medical condition (Lyme Disease) is known to trigger a set of particular clinical manifestations that enable the physician set a correct diagnosis after a simple (basic) medical examination. One particular symptom of this infectious medical disorder (Lyme Disease) is the presence of a red, round rash that surrounds the area where the patient has been bitten. This rash can affect extremely large areas of the body. Furthermore, most patients who have been diagnosed with the presence of this medical condition have described experiencing several flu-like symptoms and signs. For example, patients who were suffering from the early stages of this medical disorder experienced excessive tiredness, fever, sore joints, sore muscles and headaches. These symptoms can develop any time after the infection. While in the case of some patients they appeared after several days, other individuals did not experience them for a whole month. Some of them were not able to recall having been bitten by a tick.

If the patient with Lyme Disease does not receive a proper therapy in due time, he or she can experience more severe symptoms such as: joint pain, joint swelling, trouble focusing, lack of energy that does not improve, numbness and / or tingling of the limbs, poor memory, and so on. The presence of Lyme Disease can trigger a set of other symptoms and / or signs that we have not mentioned here, as every organism tends to react to this disorder in a unique way. For this reason, we advise all patients who experience unusual symptoms to seek medical help at once. A physician will be able to set a correct diagnosis for their medical condition.

Lyme Disease Treatment

While the physician analyzes your medical condition in order to set an adequate diagnosis, he or she will probably address you a set of questions regarding the clinical manifestations that you present. He will check for the presence of the rash that is known to be characteristics for this infectious condition (Lyme Disease). Furthermore, the health care provider might want to know more about your lately daily routine, any special activities that you might have performed, in order to see whether you may have been exposed to infected ticks. As a final step of the clinical evaluation, the physician might ask you to undergo a blood sample. After the analysis of your blood sample, the doctor will find out whether you present an increased number of white blood cells, or certain antibodies that betray the presence of this medical condition.

The main therapy option against this infectious medical condition requires the intake of antibiotics. A treatment trial that lasts for 21 days (3 weeks) should be enough to cure this medical condition. The most common oral antibiotics that are employed in the therapy against this medical condition include Doxycycline (that is prescribed to children that are older than 8 years old and to adult patients), Cefuroxime Axetil or Amoxycillin (that may be prescribed to young children, adult patients, breastfeeding females, pregnant women, and so on). A therapy with these medicines should be enough to clear the disorder and prevent the patient from experiencing the unpleasant complications of this disorder. However, if a patient as been diagnosed with the presence of a severe form of Lyme Disease, his or her therapy may last longer than 21 days. In such clinical condition, IV (intravenous) administration of antibiotics may be employed. Such a therapy is known to generally last from 14 to 28 days. This treatment trial is generally very effective against this medical condition, although it is known to remove the symptoms at a slower rate. Furthermore, it is a known fact that the use of IV antibiotics may lead to the development of several unpleasant side effects (such as severe diarrhea, gallstones, a lowering of the patient’s blood cell count, and so on).

The best preventive measure against this infectious medical condition is avoiding direct exposure to infected ticks (or better yet, to ticks of any kind). All patients who are going to be in a grassy or woody area should protect (through covering) as much skin as they can. Wearing long pants, long sleeved shirts and hats should help prevent Lyme Disease. If the individual wears light colored clothes he or she will be able to spot the ticks more rapidly. The use of bug sprays might also prove useful.