Lyme disease

Symptoms of Lyme disease: The symptoms of Lyme disease appear when a person is infected by the bacterium known as spirochete or borrelia burgdorferi. A tick found on deer carries this bacterium. Lyme disease symptoms, in the initial stage, can include skin rashes and flu-like symptoms, succeeded by arthritic, neurological, musculoskeletal, psychiatric and even cardiac manifestations. Hence, Lyme disease is often misdiagnosed and left to fester. Although treatment relieves the patient of the symptoms, the disease is not eradicated, as the correct line of treatment is not adopted. The bull’s-eye skin rash, which is a characteristic symptom of the disease, may not be the only indicator. In fact, a red rash spread all over is more common, or a number of painless rashes may also appear.

Some of the other symptoms include headache, fever, fatigue, pain in the big joints, sinus infection and sore throat. With the immune system under stress, treatment and cure for lung infections like pneumonia, cough and sore throat may be required. Occasionally, there may even be facial paralysis accompanied by intestinal pains. Chronic or late symptoms would be in addition to the earlier symptoms, and may consist of twitching of muscles, meningitis, sensitivity to light and motion, vision problems, acute sound and vibration sensitivity, imbalance when walking, short term memory loss, and many other symptoms which may appear months after being infected.

Treatment of Lyme disease: The general line of treatment of chronic Lyme disease involves long-term use of antibiotics. Controlled research has not shown any concrete evidence either in favor or against such treatment. However, other studies indicate that there may be positive benefits of long-term antibiotic therapy in the treatment of chronic Lyme disease. Research in antibiotic treatment conducted in 2001, initially by giving intravenous ceftriaxone for a month, followed by oral doses of doxycycline for two months, did not yield any significant improvement in the physical or mental health of the patients who had symptoms of cognitive impairment, musculoskeletal pain, radicular pain, and dysesthesias of paresthesias. Another study conducted in 2003, consisted of giving intravenous ceftriaxone continuously for four weeks to patients suffering from severe, persistent fatigue. It was found that there was vast improvement in the condition, and had a long-term effect. However, there was no improvement in cognitive symptoms.

The third study, for which results were presented in October 2004, consisted of giving a ten-week course of intravenous certriaxone to memory impaired, chronic Lyme patients. The results indicated a significant improvement in both cognitive and physical symptoms of the patients, suggesting the advisability of similar treatment for still longer durations. Nevertheless, critics have expressed their doubts on the validity of the results, disapproving of the methodology used in the study.

Lyme disease in dogs: A Dutch Veterinary specialist Overduin LM, Van den Bogaard AE, conducted a study in canine Lyme borreliosis disease. He found the symptoms of Lyme disease on a two-year-old Bernese mountain dog. Based on his diagnosis, he followed the general line of treatment, administering amoxycillin and tetracycline, which did not relieve the animal of the symptoms. Later, the dog was cured after he was given intravenous doses of amoxicillin, and although the symptoms reappeared after six months, it was thought to be due to a fresh tick infection.

A paper submitted by the Belgian Zonosis Workgroup, Queen Astrid Military Hospital, Brussels, describes two cases of canine Lyme disease, which were detected in Belgium. The symptoms in both the dogs were similar. They suffered from general prostration and recurrent lameness. One of the dogs also had recurring nerves paralysis, resulting in total bilateral paralysis of the mandibular muscles and dysphagia.

A vaccine for the prevention of Lyme borreliosis in dogs is now available. It is prepared from a multiantigenic preparation of Borrelia burgdorferi, strain N40, and has proved to be effective in most cases.

Three phases of Chronic Lyme disease: Chronic Lyme disease is characterized by its three consecutive phases. The three phases of chronic Lyme disease are:

Early localized disease - This displays skin inflammation displaying un-raised redness around the place of the tick bite.
Early disseminated disease - This phase involves the nervous system and the heart, leading to meningitis and palsies.
Late disease - During this phase of the disease, the patient suffers from brain inflammation, motor and sensory nerve damage and arthritis.

Lyme disease is an illness, which is caused by bites from a tick found on deer. The disease results in abnormities in the skin, nervous system, joints and the heart.