Lyme Disease
By Katie Emery
What is Lyme disease?
Lyme disease is a disease when an infected deer tick transmits the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi into animals and humans by biting them. If untreated, the bacterium travels through the bloodstream and establishes itself in various body tissues and can cause many different symptoms and illnesses, in which can be severe.
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LD is an inflammatory disease that affects the skin, joints, and nervous system. If LD is caught ASAP it could be treated and cured, however, LD is always in your body system and bloodstream afterwards.
Connections
I chose to research this topic because my mom was diagnosed with LD in 2010 and has had it since. She has been on many different antibiotics since then but it is still pretty bad. The LD has given her a couple other problems such as Babesiosis which is a co-infection from Lyme. Also, it seemed like a very interesting topic to find out more about.
Who is affected?
Any gender can get it
Any age person could be affected
No specific race is prone to it
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Most likely to get LD in heavily wooded and grassy areas.
Which body systems are affected?
The body systems affected are mostly the nervous (brain, spinal cord, sensory organs, and all the nerves that connect these organs with the body) system, and the skeletal (joints) system, although the integumentary (skin) system is affected as well.
Signs and Symptoms
When the body is working normally, your joints are average size and with LD your joints are very swollen and may begin to stop working because your nerves cannot respond anymore.
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Stiff joints
Numb hands/ fingers
Rash
Flu-like symptoms
High blood pressure
Chills
Fatigue
Later signs and symptoms include---
Joint pains
Neurological problems
Diagnosis
LD is diagnosed by----
Medical history
Physical exam
Blood tests (may take 4-6 weeks to show up positive in a blood test)
Treatment
There isn't really any way to 'cure' Lyme.
The main treatment is antibiotics.
Another thing some doctors prescribe are herbs.
The Rash
This is image of the rash that you will get if you have Lyme disease. It looks like a target. It is a red ring with a smaller red dot in the center.
Diagram
This image is showing how when they are just eggs, the ticks are not infected however, if they get in when they are larvae, they will always carry it. Mainly the larva and nymphs travel by mice, as well as the nymphs catching a ride from a human. Lastly, the adults usually go for a bigger target like a deer.
The Tick
Life expectency?
Lyme disease isn't a life threatening disease.
Bibliography
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 15 Nov. 2013. Web. 01 Dec. 2013. <http://www.cdc.gov/Lyme/>.
"Diagnosis and Treatment of LD." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 10 Jan. 2013. Web. 01 Dec. 2013. <http://www.cdc.gov/lyme/diagnosistesting/index.html>.
"Lyme Disease." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 15 Nov. 2013. Web. 01 Dec. 2013. <http://www.cdc.gov/lyme/>.
"Lyme Disease Symptoms and Treatment." WebMD. WebMD, 17 Jan. 0075. Web. 01 Dec. 2013. <http://www.webmd.com/rheumatoid-arthritis/arthritis-lyme-disease>.
"Signs and Symptoms of LD." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 11 Jan. 2013. Web. 01 Dec. 2013. <http://www.cdc.gov/lyme/signs_symptoms/index.html>.