Lyme disease (Lyme borreliosis) is an acute bacterial infection that is transmitted to humans through the saliva of an infected ixode tick when bitten.
The first cases of the disease were identified in 1976 in the town of Lyme (Connecticut, USA), so the infection was called Lyme disease.
Causes of Lyme disease
The cause of the disease is the bacterium borrelia, which lives in the tick’s gut and is transmitted to humans when bitten.
When the tick drinks blood, the borrelia is activated in the parasite’s gut and infiltrates the salivary glands. About 2 hours after the tick has sucked on the skin, the bacterium is secreted into the wound along with the parasite’s saliva. This is how it enters the bloodstream and travels to internal organs, joints, lymph nodes, and brain.
In addition, possible ways to become infected with borreliosis include:
- Consuming goat or cow’s milk that has not been fully heat-treated;
- accidentally rubbing tick gut contents into the skin (by brushing);
- careless assistance to animals (e.g. dogs) bitten by ticks: borrelia can enter the body through microtraumas of the skin or conjunctiva of the eyes;
- intrauterine infection (the bacterium is transmitted to the fetus from an infected mother).
Symptoms of Lyme disease
The most common symptom of the disease is a specific rash, also called erythema migrans.
Erythema migrans
A round or oval-shaped rash that appears around a tick bite about 7 to 14 days after a person has encountered the parasite. In some cases, the rash may appear a month after the bite.
Usually the center of the erythema migrans is bright and has well-defined edges, and the red or maroon rash gradually spreads away from it in the form of a ring. Between the center and the ring, the skin is pale. The rash is usually uncomfortable, but some patients experience itching or fever.
Flu-like symptoms
Typically, flu or acute respiratory viral infection-like symptoms appear several weeks after a bite: fever, chills, headache, muscle and joint pain, and enlarged lymph nodes.
Unlike common respiratory viral infections, Lyme disease symptoms persist for more than 2 weeks or may appear and disappear and are not accompanied by catarrhal manifestations (nasal congestion, cough, lacrimation).
Rare symptoms of Lyme disease
Typically, these symptoms occur if a person has not received a course of antibiotic therapy.
Rare symptoms of tick-borreliosis:
- severe headache (meningeal signs are possible – so-called migraine-like pain, when it hurts badly on one side of the head, usually in the temple area);
- neuropathy (paralysis) of the facial nerve;
- joint inflammation and swelling;
- heart rhythm disturbances;
- shortness of breath;
- shooting pain in the back and neck;
- numbness in the arms and legs;
- nausea and vomiting.
Diagnosing Lyme disease
If a person has found a sucked tick on the body, it is necessary to seek help as soon as possible at the nearest trauma center. Doctors can properly and safely remove the parasite.
If it is not possible to seek help, you should remove the tick yourself.
To remove the tick, grasp it with tweezers as close to the skin as possible and pull it straight up without twisting. The bite site can be wiped with alcohol or soap and water.
If in a few days or weeks after the bite a person feels a worsening of well-being, it is necessary to consult a doctor. If an unusual rash appears on the skin or other symptoms, it is necessary to make an appointment for consultation with a specialized specialist. This may be an infectious disease specialist who treats infectious diseases.
At the consultation, the doctor will conduct an interview and examination and may refer for instrumental and laboratory tests.
You should also consult a doctor if after a tick bite:
- characteristic erythema migrans has appeared at the site of the bite;
- coordination of movements and gait is disturbed;
- radicular pain in the form of shooting pains;
- developed facial asymmetry, numb hands or toes.
Lyme disease treatment
Antibiotic therapy
To treat Lyme disease, a course of antibiotic therapy is usually prescribed. This treatment helps patients at any stage of the disease.
The course of treatment is long and averages 21 days. The more severe the stage – the longer the therapy.
Symptomatic treatment of Lyme disease
To reduce the symptoms of borreliosis, your doctor may prescribe symptomatic medications: antihistamines for itching, and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs for pain.
Probiotics
Antibacterial therapy, which is used to treat borreliosis, leads to the death of not only pathogenic, but also beneficial bacteria. Representatives of the normal intestinal microflora. As a result, after a course of antibacterial therapy, a person may experience symptoms of dysbacteriosis: diarrhea or constipation, abdominal bloating. To restore the balance of beneficial bacteria in the intestine, the doctor may recommend probiotics.
But doctors and scientists have no consensus on whether probiotics should be taken with antibiotics. More research is needed to make a definite statement.
Prevention of Lyme disease
Most often ticks are found in forests and park areas with tall grass, so the most effective way to prevent borreliosis is to avoid tick habitats during the peak of their activity.
If you do not want to give up hiking or walking in the woods, you should dress properly in the forest, so that the tick can not suck on the skin.
Proper clothing for forest walks during the peak of tick activity:
- long pants;
- a long-sleeved shirt;
- high socks in which the pants should be tucked;
- closed shoes (shoes or sneakers, preferably boots);
- a cap or panama, completely covering the hair.
- In addition, you should choose light-colored or white clothing: it is easier to notice the tick. The edges of clothes should not hang down, pants are better tucked into pants. You can use special suits with anti-tick impregnation.
You should choose a place to place your belongings and tents on a grass-free surface. In addition, do not bring home bouquets of wildflowers and herbs, as they may carry ticks, which can transmit Lyme disease.
Another way of prevention – repellents. They are sold in pharmacies and stores and effectively deter gnats, mosquitoes, ticks. It is necessary to make sure that they contain components that reduce the ability of ticks to crawl and suck. Such substances include cypermethrin and alpha-cypermethrin.
Repellents should be applied to clothing and shoes, avoiding contact with exposed skin. After visiting the forest, it is obligatory to carry out self- and mutual inspections, check pets. If a tick has sucked on the human skin, it is necessary to go to a trauma center or carefully remove the parasite with tweezers independently (if medical help is unavailable). Lyme disease can be transmitted through tick bites, so it is important to take immediate action.
The animal should be taken to a veterinarian, or, if this is impossible, carefully remove the tick yourself, observing all the same rules. The tick should be placed in a jar with absorbent cotton moistened with water and a blade of grass, covered with two layers of gauze, fix the gauze with a rubber band or a tight lid (then you can put more grass) and taken to the laboratory for examination at the first opportunity. It is desirable to keep the tick alive for laboratory examination.
