Lyme Disease Progression In Humans

Effective Medications For Lyme Disease

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to treating Lyme disease. The best course of treatment will depend on the individual case and the severity of symptoms. In some cases, oral antibiotics may be enough to clear the infection. In other cases, intravenous antibiotics may be necessary.

To be specific, there are a variety of antibiotics that can be prescribed, including doxycycline, amoxicillin, doxycycline, azithromycin and cefuroxime.

Doxycycline is a common oral antibiotic prescribed to treat lyme disease in humans. It is a tetracycline antibiotic that works by inhibiting the production of bacteria. Doxycycline is effective against a variety of bacteria, including the bacteria that causes lyme disease. When taken orally, doxycycline is absorbed into the bloodstream and distributed throughout the body. It reaches high concentrations in the tissues that are infected with bacteria, including the tissues that line the joints and spinal cord. This allows doxycycline to effectively treat lyme disease by killing the bacteria that cause the infection.

On the other hand, amoxicillin is a type of antibiotic that is used to treat a variety of infections, including Lyme disease. It works by killing the bacteria that cause the infection. Amoxicillin is usually taken as a tablet or capsule, but can also be given as an injection.

Enhancing Healthcare Team Outcomes

The key to Lyme disease is prevention and this requires an interprofessional team approach. All healthcare workers including the nurse practitioner, pharmacist, and primary care provider should provide patient education on measures to prevent tick bites while hiking or working outdoors. In areas where ticks are common, cleaning up of the environment by removing the underbrush and spraying an insecticide may reduce the tick burden in the area. The outdoors person should be told to wear appropriate garments and be familiar with the skin features of the tick bite. The nurse should educate the patient on how to remove the tick from the skin and when to seek medical assistance. The pharmacist should educate the patient on medication compliance for those who have been confirmed to have acquired Lyme disease.

Nurses should educate parents how to inspect their children for ticks at the end of an outdoor event, in an endemic area. While there are many repellants on the market, it is best to avoid them as the risk of harm is greater than any benefit. If one is going to use a repellant, DEET is the one product that is safe, however, it is not 100% effective. finally, the pharmacist should educate the patient about the harms of taking prophylactic doxycycline a better strategy is to remove the tick as soon as it is visualized.

Outcomes

When Should You See A Doctor If You Think You Have Lyme

The rash is a pretty good indication that you may have been bitten. Take a photo of the rash and see your doctor. At this stage, treatment with antibiotics will probably work.

If you dont have the rash but have symptoms like fatigue, fever, and headache but no respiratory symptoms like a cough, you may want to talk to your doctor.

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Stages Of Lyme Disease And Their Common Symptoms

If you have already been diagnosed with Lyme disease, learning about Lyme stages can help you know what symptoms you might experience. Youll also be able to watch for signs that could mean that your Lyme disease has progressed. Lyme disease symptoms are more likely to progress if you have not been appropriately treated.

If you dont have a Lyme disease diagnosis, its helpful to know that Lyme disease can cause a variety of seemingly unrelated symptoms throughout your body. If you develop symptoms listed below, especially after youve gotten a tick bite or spent time in an area where Lyme disease is common, you can ask your doctor whether you might have Lyme disease and if you should be tested for it. .

There are three stages of Lyme disease. Early localized, or Stage 1, Lyme disease occurs soon after being infected, when Lyme bacteria are still close to the site of the tick bite. Common symptoms of early localized Lyme disease include a rash or mild, flulike symptoms. Over time the Lyme bacteria can spread, or disseminate, to other parts of the body, causing more serious symptoms associated with early disseminated or late disseminated Lyme disease. This is more likely if you are not diagnosed and treated early.

Phylogenetic Diversity And Human Disease Taxonomy And Disease

B. burgdorferi was thought to be the sole genospecies in the United States until 1995 when Marconi and associates isolated B. andersonii from cottontail rabbits and I. dentatus ticks. Subsequently, it became evident that enzootic cycles exist involving non-sensu stricto species and specialist ixodid ticks with strong, selective host preferences and little or no proclivity to bite humans. Perhaps the best characterized of these is B. bissettii , transmitted by I. pacificus, I. affinis and I. spinipalpis and recovered and/or detected by PCR throughout the United States in ticks and a variety of vertebrates and, in rare instances, humans . Molecular evidence for infection of humans by B. americana and B. andersonii, particularly in Southern states, also has been reported . Moreover, B. mayonii was recently isolated from a few human specimens in upper midwestern U.S. . However, in the United States, B. burgdorferi remains the primary agent of disease.

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Achy Stiff Or Swollen Joints

Joint pain and stiffness, often intermittent, are early Lyme symptoms. Your joints may be inflamed, warm to the touch, painful, and swollen. You may have stiffness and limited range of motion in some joints .

Pain may move around. Sometimes your knees may hurt, whereas other times its your neck or your heels. You may also have bursitis . Bursae are the thin cushions between bone and surrounding tissue.

The pain may be severe, and it may be transitory. More than one joint may be affected. Most often the large joints are involved .

People often attribute joint problems to age, genetics, or sports. Lyme should be added to that list, as these statistics indicate:

• One study estimates that 80 percent of people with untreated Lyme have muscle and joint symptoms .
• Fifty percent of people with untreated Lyme have intermittent episodes of arthritis .
• Two-thirds of people have their first episode of joint pain within six months of the infection .
• Use of anti-inflammatory drugs may mask the actual number of people with joint swelling .

Summary:

Joint pain that comes and goes, or moves from joint to joint, could be a sign of Lyme.

When A Lyme Diagnosis Is Tricky

There are several reasons it can be hard to diagnose Lyme disease.

• Tests are less accurate for a short period of time after you first become infected. Thats because Lyme tests look for proteins created by your immune system to help you fight off infection , rather than for the infection itself, and it can take a few weeks for your body to make enough antibodies to cause a positive test.

• The only sure sign of Lyme disease is an erythema migrans rash, which often has a bullseye shape. But up to 30% of people who get Lyme disease never get a rash. It is also possible that a person may not notice a rash before it goes away.

• Symptoms of Lyme disease like fever and body aches can also be caused by other illnesses. This may result in Lyme diagnoses being missed because symptoms are attributed to another illness.

• Using todays tests, it is difficult to distinguish between an old Lyme disease infection and a new one.

Thats why Lyme disease cases may be missed, and as many as 40% of Lyme disease cases are not diagnosed until a later stage of the disease. By that time, Lyme disease is harder to treat, and long-term complications are more likely, so an early, accurate diagnosis is very important.

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How Is Lyme Disease Diagnosed

An EM rash is a sure sign of Lyme disease, so your doctor can diagnose and treat you without the need for laboratory tests.

An EM rash, often shaped like a bullseye , is a sure sign of Lyme disease. If you develop an EM rash, you should be diagnosed & treated for Lyme disease without the need for further lab tests. EM rashes are not as obvious on darker skin .

For all other cases, your doctor should consider whether your symptoms and risk factors point to a Lyme disease diagnosis. For example:

• Were you bitten by a tick?

• Did you spend time outdoors in an area where Lyme disease is common?

• Recent travel: Lyme disease may be common where you were, even if it is unusual where you live.

• Your current symptoms and how long have they been present.

• Your full medical history, including previous unexplained symptoms that may help lead to an accurate diagnosis whether that ends up being Lyme or another condition.

How Do I Remove A Tick

You should know how to remove a tick just in case one lands on you or a friend. To be safe, remove the tick as soon as possible.

If you find a tick:

• Use tweezers to grasp the tick firmly at its head or mouth, next to your skin.
• Pull firmly and steadily on the tick until it lets go of the skin. If part of the tick stays in your skin, dont worry. It will eventually come out. But call your doctor if you notice any irritation in the area or symptoms of Lyme disease.
• Swab the bite site with alcohol.

Note: Dont use petroleum jelly or a lit match to kill a tick. They wont get the tick off your skin quickly enough, and may just cause it to burrow deeper into your skin.

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Stage : Early Disseminated Lyme Disease

Timing: Weeks to months after a tick bite

In early disseminated Lyme disease, the infection has started to move beyond the site of your tick bite to other parts of your body such as your heart, brain, or spinal cord. Lyme disease that has moved to the brain is sometimes referred to as Lyme neuroborreliosis, or neurological Lyme disease.

Common symptoms of early disseminated Lyme disease include:

• More than one EM rash

• Pain that may come and go and move around the body, in joints, tendons, muscles, and bones

• Inflammation of the brain and spinal cord , which can cause severe headache, neck stiffness, and sensitivity to light and sound

• Numbness, weakness, or tingling in the arms and legs

• Weakness or drooping on one or both sides of the face difficulty closing an eyelid

• Inflammation of the heart that can cause heart palpitations, irregular heartbeat, dizziness, shortness of breath, or fainting. If you are experiencing any of these heart symptoms, seek immediate medical care.

You may also experience a worsening of earlier Lyme disease symptoms.

Lyme disease can cause joint pain , a stiff neck , or weakness or drooping on one or both sides of the face, known as facial palsy .

Stage : Early Localized Disease

Symptoms of Lyme disease usually start 3 to 30 days after the tick bite. One of the earliest signs of the disease is a bulls-eye rash.

The rash occurs at the site of the tick bite, usually, but not always, as a central red spot surrounded by a clear spot with an area of redness at the edge. It may be warm to the touch, but its not painful and doesnt itch. This rash will gradually fade in most people.

The formal name for this rash is erythema migrans.

Some people with lighter skin have a rash thats solid red. Some people with darker skin may have a rash that resembles a bruise.

The rash can occur with or without systemic viral or flu-like symptoms.

Other symptoms commonly seen in this stage of Lyme disease include:

Youll have a general feeling of being unwell. A rash may appear in areas other than the tick bite.

This stage of the disease is primarily characterized by evidence of systemic infection, which means infection has spread throughout the body, including to other organs.

Symptoms can include:

• disturbances in heart rhythm, which can be caused by Lyme carditis
• neurologic conditions, such as numbness, tingling, facial and cranial nerve palsies, and meningitis

The symptoms of stages 1 and 2 can overlap.

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Racial Differences In Incidence

Lyme disease is reported primarily in whites, although it occurs in individuals of all races. No genetic explanation is known for this the disparity most likely stems from social or environmental factors and possibly to the fact that erythema migrans is more difficult to diagnose in dark-skinned individuals.

What Are The Signs & Symptoms Of Lyme Disease

Lyme disease can affect different body systems, such as the nervous system, joints, skin, and heart. The symptoms of Lyme disease are often described as happening in three stages. Not everyone with Lyme has all of these, though:

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How Do Doctors Diagnose Lyme Disease

In areas where the ticks that carry Lyme disease are found, when a patient comes to a doctor with probable erythema migrans , blood tests are performed to diagnose the condition, including the following:

• Step 1: Enzyme immunoassay or immunofluorescence assay total Lyme titer or IgG and IgM titers
• Step 2: Western blot testing only performed if step 1 test results are positive

Other tests that may be indicated include the following:

• Joint aspiration to see if there is another cause for fluid buildup on the joints
• Cerebrospinal fluid analysis in patients with meningitis
• Electrocardiogram to identify Lyme carditis or arrythmias

How You Get Lyme Disease

If a tick bites an animal carrying the bacteria that cause Lyme disease, the tick can become infected. The tick can then transfer the bacteria to a human by biting them.

Ticks don’t jump or fly. They climb on to your clothes or skin if you brush against something they’re on. They then bite into the skin and start to feed on your blood.

Generally, you’re more likely to become infected if the tick is attached to your skin for more than 24 hours. Ticks are very small and their bites are not painful, so you may not realise you have one attached to your skin.

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The Lyme Borreliosis Spatial Footprint In The 21st Century: A Key Study Of Sloveniayour Browser Indicates If Youve Visited This Link

Slovenia is an endemic region for Lyme borreliosis and one of the countries with the highest incidence of this disease on a global scale. Thus, the spatial pattern of Slovenian Lyme borreliosis prevalence was modelled with 246 indicators and transformed into 24 uncorrelated predictor variables that were applied in geographically weighted regression and regression tree algorithms.

Europe PMC

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Later Symptoms Of Lyme Disease

More serious symptoms may develop if Lyme disease is left untreated or is not treated early. These can include:

• pain and swelling in the joints
• nerve problems such as numbness or pain in your limbs
• memory problems
• difficulty concentrating

Some of these problems will get better slowly with treatment. But they can persist if treatment is started late.

A few people with Lyme disease go on to develop long-term symptoms similar to those of fibromyalgia or chronic fatigue syndrome. This is known as post-infectious Lyme disease. It’s not clear exactly why this happens. It’s likely to be related to overactivity of your immune system rather than continued infection.

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The Chance Of Getting Lyme Disease

Not all ticks in England carry the bacteria that causes Lyme disease.

But it’s still important to be aware of ticks and to safely remove them as soon as possible, just in case.

Ticks that may cause Lyme disease are found all over the UK, but high-risk places include grassy and wooded areas in southern and northern England and the Scottish Highlands.

SINCLAIR STAMMERS/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY https://www.sciencephoto.com/media/263611/view

Ticks are tiny spider-like creatures that live in woods, areas with long grass, and sometimes in urban parks and gardens. They’re found all over the UK.

Ticks do not jump or fly. They attach to the skin of animals or humans that brush past them.

Once a tick bites into the skin, it feeds on blood for a few days before dropping off.