Lime disease

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Lime disease

Lime Disease

Lyme disease is caused by Borrelia burgdorferi, which is a tick-borne spirochete.

The dangers of this disease became more publicised in 1977, where a geographic

grouping of children in Lyme, Conneticut were thought to have juvenile rheumatoid

arthritis1. Soon after, it was discovered that lyme disease was an illness that mainly

affects the skin, nervous system, heart, and joints. The borrelia species is part of the

eubacterial phylum of spirochetes. Containted within a protoplasmic cylinder is a cell

membrane, followed by wavy flagella, and then an outer membrane. The genes

encoded within the outer membrane are located on plasmids which allows the organism

to make antigenic changes in these proteins. When a borrelia cell attaches to its host,

the whole outer membrane moves to one end of the cylinder, which is called capping to

patching1. B. burgdorferi do not live in water, soil, or plants. Borrelia grow slowly

compared to most bacteria. They elongate for 12 to 24 hours before dividing into two

cells. B. burgdorferi is approximately 20 to um long and 0.2 to 0.25 um wide, with 7 to

11 flagella. More than 30 proteins are contained within B. burgdorferi1. This bacteria

uses white-footed mice, mosquitoes, and deer as their hosts.

This disease does not discriminate between sex and age; male and female, as

well as old and young are affected. It is widely distributed around the world in the

temperate zones3. A person is infected when a black-legged tick imbeds itself into

them while out in the open in wodded and forested areas. This usually occurs between

the months of May and July. Tick abundance is associated with humidity, temperature,

landscape slope, forested areas with sandy soils, and the extremity of residential

development?.

Generally, lyme disease occurs in stages, which are not always clear-cut; they

may overlap. The first stage involves the injection of B. burgdorferi by the tick. Shortly

thereafter (3 days to 4 months), it spreads throughout the skin, causing erythema

migrans (EM), which is basically a skin lesion. This lesion can vary in size, body site,

color, duration, intensity, and recurrence. Erythema migrans is a marker of the

disease, yet may also be absent altogether. EM resolves spontaneously in a few

weeks or months4. Also like to occur during this stage are mild fever, chills, headache,

and stiff neck (flu-like symptoms)?.

Within days or weeks after infection, in stage 2, the specimen has been seen in

specimens of myocardium, retina, muscle, bone, spleen, liver and brain1. Secondary

skin lesions may occur but are smaller and migrate less. The main symptoms include

fatigue and excruciating headache, lasting only ...

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Keywords: lyme disease, lyme disease symptoms, lyme disease treatment, lyme disease vaccine, lyme disease antibiotics, lyme disease death rate, lyme disease diagnosis, lyme disease in dogs

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