Lyme Disease In New Jersey
The prevalence of Lyme disease in New Jersey is quite high, at 40 cases per 100,000 people, and 2019 saw more than 2,400 cases in the Garden State. Only Pennsylvania and New York exceeded that caseload. Due to abundant tick habitat and a vast whitetail deer population , we can expect to be living with Lyme disease in New Jersey for the foreseeable future.
Rosacea And Other Skin Rashes
One of the characteristic signs of lupus is a skin rash. The most common is the butterfly or malar rash that affects the cheekbones and the bridge of the nose, and the jawline. This is a red, flat rash that looks like a sunburn.
There are two other types of rashes that occur with lupus: a discoid rash, which produces round lesions that are red and scaly and often appear on the face and scalp, and another red, scaly rash known as subacute cutaneous lupus that can appear on the arms, shoulders, back, and neck or the parts of your body that are exposed to UV rays.
For many lupus patients, these rashes get worse in the sun. Lupus patients are particularly susceptible to ultraviolet light, not only the causing lupus rash, but affecting them internally and causing systemic flares, says Dr. Petri. I tell my patients that just walking from the garage into the Hopkins outpatient center is enough ultraviolet light exposure to cause them to have a rash. They need to have a hat on just for that limited exposure.
But there are other rashes unrelated to lupus that can happen after sun exposure. One is called solar urticaria, which are itchy bumps that can appear in even non-exposed areas of your body. Rosacea, which can also be triggered by sunlight, often looks like a lupus rash because it tends to be red and flat and have a butterfly pattern.
Fibromyalgia Lupus Or Lyme
At present, a vaccination for Lyme disease is not yet available. However, you can certainly take some precautions to reduce the chance of being bitten by ticks.
Here are a few suggestions:
If you are away from home in the outdoors:
- Wear light-colored pants and tuck the bottom of your pants into your socks and a long-sleeved shirt. This will help you to spot black-legged ticks on your clothing.
- It will also help to spray your clothes and shoes with permethrin repellent and apply insect repellant lotions directly onto your skin.
- When you arrive home or even before getting inside the car, check for any presence of ticks on your body or clothing.
- Carefully inspect your skin folds such as your armpits, waistband, groin, head, scalp, and neck to see if there are ticks hiding.
- Walk along the footpaths as much as possible and avoid walking in longer grass and brushing through shrubs.
- Check your pets skin and fur and make sure they do not bring ticks back home from your adventures.
If you are at home and outdoors:
- Check your pets as above.
- Do not let grass grow too long in your yard, regularly mow your lawn.
- Rake fallen leaves as soon as possible as ticks can be found in leaf litter.
- Stack wood in a dry place.
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Lets Talk About Lyme Disease
This article was medically reviewed by .
Lyme disease is important because its a widespread, easily acquired tickborne infection that can have long-term health effects. The CDC reports that nearly half a million Americans are treated for Lyme every year. The spring and summer months coincide with tick season, when the lure of outdoor fun with lots of exposed skin can pose an increased risk for Lyme transmission.
Spread through the bite of infected deer ticks, some infections start with flu-like symptoms, but not all have that as the initial clue. The telltale bulls eye rash may occur in 70 to 80% of infected people. It can move into joints and organs, leading to a variety of problems, including:
- Neurological symptoms like neuropathy and facial palsy
- Heart block of the electrical system and other cardiac problems
Named for the town of Lyme, Connecticut where it was first described in 1975, Lyme disease has since spread outward and is now a nationwide concern. It is endemic across the northeastern United States.
Fortunately, we have treatments to neutralize the disease, and important steps we can take when outdoors to prevent the tick bites that transmit it:
- When youre home, recheck your entire skin surface for ticks and then shower.
- Put your clothes in the dryer set to high heat to kill any ticks that may be hiding on your outdoor clothes.
Lyme Disease And Lupus: Diagnosis And Treatment Options
Lyme disease is diagnosed by analyzing symptoms, conducting a physical exam, reviewing the patients medical history, and running some tests including enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, western blot, and polymerase chain reaction. These tests check for antibodies and confirm diagnosis.
Lyme disease is commonly treated with a regime of antibiotics over the course of several weeks. If Lyme disease is persistent, intravenous antibiotics will be used.
To diagnose lupus, laboratory tests, imaging tests, and biopsies may be utilized. Your doctor may request a complete blood count, erythrocyte sedimentation rate that observes how fast blood cells fall to the bottom of a tube , kidney and liver assessments, urinalysis, and antinuclear antibody test.
Imaging tests include chest X-ray and an echocardiogram to check for fluid in the lung and the heart valves.
There are several treatment options for lupus, including corticosteroids, antimalarials, repository corticotropin injection , and aspirin. Other accompanying medications to treat coexisting conditions include diuretics, blood pressure medication, anti-seizure medications, antibiotics for infections, and bone-strengthening drugs to prevent osteoporosis.
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Different Effects Of Lyme Disease
A Lyme infection can progress from fairly mild to very severe symptoms, affecting different bodily systems over time. Most people never get beyond the initial acute phase because they get quick treatment and are cured. However, someone with untreated Lyme disease could experience a combination of these effects:
Connection Between Lupus And Lyme Disease
Lyme disease and lupus share many symptoms, such as atrioventricular block, which can present itself as heart palpitations. Other shared symptoms include joint pain, fever, fatigue, headache, rashes, and central nervous system complications.
Both conditions can affect the knees. Lyme disease can also cause pain in larger joints, while lupus affects the smaller ones. Arthritis can also be seen in both Lyme disease and lupus, leading to joint pain, too.
Fever occurs mainly in the early stages of Lyme disease and during lupus flares. Fatigue, too, is happening in both diseases, but in Lyme disease it may go away with appropriate treatment, and in lupus it is more frequent and can affect up to 90 percent of patients.
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E How Do We Document And Evaluate Immune Deficiency Disorders Excluding Hiv Infection
1. General.
a. Immune deficiency disorders can be classified as:
Primary for example, X-linked agammaglobulinemia, thymic hypoplasia , severe combined immunodeficiency , chronic granulomatous disease , C1 esterase inhibitor deficiency.
Acquired for example, medication-related.
b. Primary immune deficiency disorders are seen mainly in children. However, recent advances in the treatment of these disorders have allowed many affected children to survive well into adulthood. Occasionally, these disorders are first diagnosed in adolescence or adulthood.
2. Documentation of immune deficiency disorders. The medical evidence must include documentation of the specific type of immune deficiency. Documentation may be by laboratory evidence or by other generally acceptable methods consistent with the prevailing state of medical knowledge and clinical practice.
3. Immune deficiency disorders treated by stem cell transplantation.
a. Evaluation in the first 12 months. If you undergo stem cell transplantation for your immune deficiency disorder, we will consider you disabled until at least 12 months from the date of the transplant.
b. Evaluation after the 12-month period has elapsed. After the 12-month period has elapsed, we will consider any residuals of your immune deficiency disorder as well as any residual impairment resulting from the treatment, such as complications arising from:
Graft-versus-host disease.
Immunosuppressant therapy, such as frequent infections.
Similar Symptoms Of Lyme Disease And Lupus
Lyme disease and lupus can affect many organs and parts of the body. The common symptoms of both illnesses are the following:
- Fever: This is most seen at the early stage of Lyme disease. This can also be seen in lupus patients at the earliest stage, which usually occurs when the disease flares.
- Fatigue: Fatigue for Lyme disease is common throughout the early stages of the disease, and it may persist in untreated patients with chronic Lyme disease. Fatigue for lupus is typically unrelenting and profound, and it is a frequent problem for lupus patients.
- Joint Pains: Joint pains for lupus are commonly on the smaller joints of the wrists, hands, ankles, toes, and at times, the larger joints of the knees. On the contrary, the joint pains for Lyme disease commonly affect the larger joints of the knees. The joints in both Lyme disease and lupus are painful and swollen, and the arthritis of both diseases is cyclic.
- Headaches: Headaches, which occur in untreated chronic Lyme disease patients, may be associated with inflammation, central nervous system infection, or other consequences of infection. For headaches that occur in lupus patients, they may be associated with changes in the blood vessels of the head.
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F How Do We Document And Evaluate Hiv Infection
Any individual with HIV infection, including one with a diagnosis of acquired immune deficiency syndrome , may be found disabled under 14.11 if his or her impairment meets the criteria in that listing or is medically equivalent to the criteria in that listing.
1. Documentation of HIV infection.
a. Definitive documentation of HIV infection. We may document a diagnosis of HIV infection by positive findings on one or more of the following definitive laboratory tests:
HIV antibody screening test , confirmed by a supplemental HIV antibody test such as the Western blot , an immunofluorescence assay, or an HIV-1/HIV-2 antibody differentiation immunoassay.
HIV nucleic acid detection test .
HIV p24 antigen test.
Isolation of HIV in viral culture.
Other tests that are highly specific for detection of HIV and that are consistent with the prevailing state of medical knowledge.
b. We will make every reasonable effort to obtain the results of your laboratory testing. Pursuant to §§ 404.1519f and 416.919f, we will purchase examinations or tests necessary to make a determination in your claim if no other acceptable documentation exists.
c. Other acceptable documentation of HIV infection. We may also document HIV infection without definitive laboratory evidence.
2. Documentation of the manifestations of HIV infection.
c. Other acceptable documentation of manifestations of HIV infection. We may also document manifestations of HIV infection without definitive laboratory evidence.
Skin Tags Can Be Removed
At the end of the day, you can have skin tags removed by a professional. A doctor will help you remove the tags with a simple in-office procedure. However, if the root cause is any of the diseases mentioned above, they will also be able to provide you with a course of treatment that will help you. This is something that will assist with helping you get the skin tags outright, and treat the underlying root causes as well. Lupus, lymphoma, and Lyme disease are not root causes in every instance, but it cannot be ruled out in some cases. A doctor can denote if thats the case, overall.
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Lyme Disease Vs Lupus: Risk Factors And Complications
Lupus is an autoimmune disease, so it may not be possible to prevent it completely. Some risk factors that have been found to increase the odds of developing lupus include being a female, being between the ages of 15 to 44, being African American, Hispanic/Latino, Asian American, Native American, Native Hawaiian, or Pacific Islander, and having a family history of lupus. About five to 13 percent of individuals who develop lupus have some family history of the disease.
Because lupus can have an impact all over the body, there are numerous complications that can occur, including kidney damage, kidney failure, complications to the brain and nervous system, resulting in headaches and memory problems, blood problems like anemia, inflammation of the lungs, inflammation of the heart, increased risk of infections, cancer, bone tissue death, and pregnancy complications like miscarriage.
Lyme disease can only be contracted through a tick bite, so a large risk factor is spending time in wooded, grassy areas, especially in the Northeast or Midwest regions of the U.S. If your skin is exposed that can increase the risk of a tick latching on and transmitting the bacteria. Lastly, if a tick is spotted, remove it immediately.
Lyme disease complications include chronic joint inflammation, neurological symptoms, cognitive defects, and heart rhythm irregularities.
Ticks Have ‘sucked The Life Out’ Of Some Lyme Sufferers
Lois Ravotti is a Williamstown resident and has had Lyme disease for over 20 years. In the late 1970’s, Ravotti enjoyed camping and attending events such as the Philadelphia Folk Festival. She traces her infection to a camping trip to Bass River State Forest, which has turned out to be a hot spot for disease – carrying ticks, according to Ravotti. Over the years, she has been misdiagnosed many times. Lyme disease mimics other illnesses. One doctor told her that she had lupus. Since Lyme disease was not as prevalent years ago and many doctors were unfamiliar with the illness, many sufferers did not get medical treatment in the crucial early stages of the sickness. Ravotti was one of them. In January of 1996, she finally was diagnosed with the illness. Like Marge, Ravotti has always tested negative on her Lyme test.
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Does Every Tick Bite Cause Lyme Disease
Lyme can be transmitted only from an infected blacklegged tick attached for at least 36 hours. A bite from an uninfected tick cannot produce the disease.
Even in an endemic area, not all ticks are infected, and the percentage of infected ticks fluctuates yearly and differs by location. So, while not every tick bite can cause infection, every tick bite is a high alert to watch for symptoms of a possible tickborne infection.
Infections Looking More Like The Cause
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome having a viral cause is not based on hard evidence, rather, on an ever-growing series of observations that suggest this association. CFS as well as fibromyalgia and autoimmune disease patients are often found with elevated antibody levels for a variety of organisms that cause fatigue and other symptoms. These organisms include those that cause Lyme disease, Candida , herpes virus type 6 , human T cell lymph tropic virus , Epstein-Barr, measles, coxsackie B, cytomegalovirus, or parvovirus.
Many of these infectious agents are very common, however, and none has emerged as a definitive cause of CFS. Well-designed studies of patients who met strict criteria for CFS without any known cause have not found an increased incidence of any specific infection. However, is it a combination of these infections, toxins and other insults. Then, the answer clinically is yes.
In up to 80% of cases, CFS starts suddenly with a flu-like condition. In the U.S., there have been reports of cluster outbreaks of CFS occurring within the same household, workplace, and community . However, most cases of CFS occur sporadically in individuals, and do not appear to be contagious. These all have the pattern of infections and more importantly community of infections taking over the patient’s immune system, which is clearly seen in the depressed CD57 markers found in almost all of this population.
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How To Test For Lyme Disease
The primary screen for Lyme is an ELISA test to detect and measure antibodies in the blood. If that test is negative, youre disease free. If positive, you may need a second test known as the Western blot. If that is also positive, you have a confirmed case of Lyme disease.
A PCR test can detect the presence of Lyme in joint fluid. Some people start with this test, usually due to seeking treatment for a painful, swollen joint. An orthopedist will tap the joint and if it shows a positive PCR, Lyme disease is confirmed.
Its also important to consider alternative and even multiple diagnoses. For example, a condition that presents like rheumatoid arthritis or lupus could be Lyme. It is possible to have co-infection with other tickborne pathogens like anaplasmosis, ehrlichiosis, and babesiosis. It is possible for a tick carrying more than one type of bacteria to transmit them all with the same bite.
Usually, especially if a patient is very sick, said Dr. Kallich, Ill test for all potential tickborne diseases at the same time to try to determine whats really going on.
A low blood platelet count can indicate infection or non-tickborne autoimmune conditions such as lupus or rheumatoid disease, and these should be investigated with separate testing.
Summary Lyme Disease Vs Lupus
Lupus and Lyme disease have unique dermatological manifestations that help in differentiating them from one another. The origin of the two conditions is the main difference between Lyme disease and lupus. Lupus is an autoimmune disease that arises as a result of the production of autoantibodies. But Lyme disease is an infectious disease caused by Borrelia burgdoferi.
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