Lyme Disease Research Paper

Lyme Disease is considered the most common arthropod-borne illness in the U.S. due to the fact that over 150,00 cases have been reported to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention since 1982. (ALDF , n.d.) Lyme disease is still unknown to many people and in many cases, it is misdiagnosed and unreported. Due to that the count is probably a lot higher, but the symptoms of Lyme disease are easily overlooked. Lyme disease or LD is a bacterial infection transmitted to humans by a tick, primarily by the Ixodes ticks which are most commonly known as deer ticks. Although Lyme disease doesn’t affect all of the United States it is still very common and primarily found in the Northeast and in the upper Midwest of the country. Lyme disease is …show more content…
An infected tick transmits spirochete to humans and animals by biting into the skin and imbedding itself, it can feed up to serval days if not interrupted. Tick bites are so little that they are painless and many people don’t even realize they’ve been bitten. Especially, because ticks like warm, moist places like armpits, groin and back of the knee. Patients with Lyme disease are frequently misdiagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, multiple sclerosis, and different psychiatric illnesses. (About Lyme Disease, n.d.) If untreated the bacterium travels through the bloodstream and infects many different organs. In 80% to 90% of all Lyme disease once the infected tick is removed a rash called erythema migrans or EM appears. It tends to be a in a shape of a ring around the insertion site and appears around the 7-14 days, and has an average of 5 to 6 inches diameter. EM can last up to 3 to 5 weeks and because it is not painful or itchy it’s also one of the reasons most people never notice it, as it almost looks like a bruise. As Lyme disease spirochete spreads through the body a number of symptoms may surface such as severe fatigue, aching, numbness of the …show more content…
The first stage is called the early stage and patients usually experience a rash erythema migrans, headaches, stiff neck, tingling and numbness, changes in vision, fever up to 102F , severe fatigue, sore throat and multiple enlarged lymph glands. In some cases, even facial palsy. Weeks after the bite or the infection date, if the disease is untreated it will begin its early disseminated stage. During this stage the bacteria starts infecting all the systems in the body, severe headaches and stiff neck occur because of the inflammation of the spinal cord, large joints swell and Lyme arthritis starts to develop. Cardiac issues appear such as heart palpitations called Lyme Carditis. Some patients experience neurological complications such as short-term memory loss, shooting pains and speech difficulties. The third stage of LD can occur even years after the initial infection. Even after being treated 10-20% patients can still experience the symptoms, it is called the Post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome or PTLDS. (CDC,

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