Lyme Disease - What Are It, Symptoms and Treatment

This dangerous infectious disease can affect a patient of any gender and at any age. But more often its manifestations are seen in children under 15 years old and in adults from 24 to 44 years old. Through a tick bite, which is the carrier of the causative agent of the infection, Lyme disease is transmitted to people. What is it and how to deal with the disease under discussion, is described in the material.

What is Lyme disease - general characteristics

Tick-borne borreliosis is an infectious disease of a bacterial nature. Spirochetes (spiral bacteria) cause it, which are transmitted through the bite of immature infected ticks.

The development of the disease is accompanied by damage to the tissues of the nervous system, skin on various parts of the body, as well as joints and heart. First, pathogens actively multiply on the skin, then enter the internal organs. They are able to stay in the body of an infected person for a very long time, as a result of which the disease flows into a chronic form. The main problem is that the insect vectors are very small and their bites are painless. Therefore, patients may not notice the problem for a long time.

This “fruit” name was given to the disease because it was first diagnosed and described in the American town of Lyme. This happened back in 1975.

Prevalence and route of infection

The first cases of infection with a new disease were noted in North America. Later it was found out that at the same time the disease was diagnosed in different countries of Europe and Asia. In Russia, borreliosis was detected in the mid-80s of the last century.Currently, it is diagnosed in patients quite often.

The source of infection is many species of domestic and wild animals. These are moose, deer, some rodents, dogs, sheep, birds. It was extremely difficult to detect Borrelia burgdorferi Borrelia in animal tissues, even with the most modern medical equipment.

Ticks, in the saliva and digestive organs of which the causative organisms are located, usually live in temperate climates in mixed forests. They are located on bushes and trees (at low altitude), from where they easily jump onto the hairs of animals passing by. During certain periods, infected insects and migratory birds actively carry on themselves.

The pathogen can enter the body of people in various ways:

1. The most common route is through the blood (along with tick saliva at the time of a bite).
2. Occasionally, cases of infection were recorded after drinking goat milk without first boiling.
3. You can become infected as a result of rubbing feces or tick saliva on the skin with obvious damage.

Symptoms and signs of borreliosis

No more than 30% of all patients remember an episode with an insect bite. Other children and adults simply do not notice what happened and as a result ignore all the initial symptoms of the disease. Often, the symptoms of borreliosis are attributed by patients to ordinary ARVI.

The main symptoms of Lyme disease:

1. Redness at the site of the bite. It is a rounded spot with uneven borders and a compacted center. Gradually, redness can increase in diameter to 17-22 cm. Such spots are called erythema. The disease may not be accompanied by their appearance, but in this case it proceeds much harder.
2. Joint damage. All parts of them are involved in the inflammatory process. Cartilage and bone tissue are gradually destroyed.
3. Strong shooting pains in the muscles, disturbing the night's sleep.
4. Symptoms similar to cold symptoms include swollen lymph nodes, fever, general weakness, and sore throat.
5. Dizziness, stiffness in the neck.
6. Strong headache.
7. Fainting, chest pain, shortness of breath.
8. Paralysis of the facial nerve.

As a rule, these symptoms develop within 1-2 weeks after a tick bite. Signs from the last items on the list are extremely rare in patients.

If the disease has been started, then it will manifest itself with more serious symptoms. Among them: chronic fatigue, sleep problems, pain in muscles and joints, mental disorders, memory loss, and others.

Stages of the disease

Experts conventionally divide the entire period of the course of the disease into three main stages.

1. First stage lasts about 30 days from being bitten by an infected tick. In this period the patient feels a general malaise and notices flu-like symptoms. Raising the body temperature to 40 degrees can bother a person for 15 days. Nausea, sore throat, and vomiting are rarely observed. In this period the spot at the site of the bite on the patient's body rapidly increases in size. If you start the right treatment in time, then redness disappears in a few days. Otherwise, it can persist on the skin for up to 2 months.
2. Second stage develops only in the absence of competent comprehensive treatment of the disease. A few weeks to months after infection, the patient is noted damage to the nervous system, skin (for example, urticaria) and the cardiovascular system (pain in the heart). Angina, diseases of the eyes, liver, kidneys, and even bronchitis are also characteristic of this stage.
3. Third stage the disease is formed after the end of the first two - about 2-3 months after a tick bite (sometimes after 5-6 months). The disease becomes chronic. The patient constantly feels weak, feels tired, his sleep is disturbed, and depression may even begin. The defeat of various internal systems and organs continues.

Chronic Lyme Disease

Chronic borreliosis is the third stage of the course of the disease under discussion, described above. It develops exclusively in cases where the infection was not treated at all or if the patient had the wrong treatment plan.

The chronic variant of the disease proceeds with a constant alternation of remissions or exacerbations. In most cases, this form is accompanied by atrophic acrodermatitis and arthritis. The latter can lead to complete destruction of the bone or cartilage in the joint, which as a result becomes non-functional and requires replacement with a prosthesis.

Another common symptom of the chronic form of the disease under discussion is benign lymphocytoma. A tumor-like neoplasm appears in the scrotum, nipples and auricles.

General principles for the diagnosis of borreliosis

Diagnosis of tick-borne borreliosis is greatly complicated by the fact that the symptoms of the disease are similar to signs of other ailments. It is also not easy to identify its chronic form, when the disease proceeds without skin rashes.

First of all, the doctor asks the patient questions about visiting parks and forest belts during the dangerous period and the likelihood of a tick bite. In addition, an examination is carried out for the presence of a characteristic spot and rashes on the body, the temperature is measured.

Mandatory procedure is the delivery of a general blood test. In some cases, the patient is prescribed a study of cerebrospinal fluid. Even less commonly, serological analysis is recommended.

Lyme Disease Treatment

Proper effective treatment of Lyme disease must necessarily be comprehensive. A very important part of it is antibiotic therapy. Its main task is to suppress the development of the pathogen. Antibiotics do not allow the disease to go into the chronic stage.

Undergoing treatment in a hospital. Only people with erythema migrans and without symptoms disturbing them can refuse hospitalization. The latter can carry out treatment at home, but also under the constant supervision of doctors.

The choice of drugs for therapy depends on the stage of the disease. Usually, antibiotics (Doxycycline, Ceftriaxone and others similar) are prescribed for the patient for a period of 2 to 4 weeks. This is characteristic of all three stages. With additional medical procedures, the doctor determines the patient by examining the individual characteristics of the course of the disease of each individual patient.

Prognosis for the disease and complications

With the timely detection of the disease and competent therapy with high-quality modern antibiotics, the prognosis for recovery is always favorable. The sooner a person visits a doctor, the easier it will be to avoid dangerous complications.

Experts include the possible consequences of tick-borne borreliosis in the deterioration of the heart, irreversible changes in the functioning of the nervous system and inflammatory joint diseases. The latter can not be avoided even with competent comprehensive timely treatment of the disease.

If the disease is started, and the person refused therapy, this can lead to a complete loss of efficiency as a result of the non-functioning of the affected joints. In especially severe cases, the disease causes the death of the patient.

Disease prevention

To date, there is no vaccine that protects children and adults from the disease under discussion. Therefore, special attention should be paid to its prevention. Its main part will be measures to prevent the bite of infected insects.

During the period of maximum tick activity, you need to abandon walking in parks and in the forest. They are especially active during the mating season - this is April, May. If you had to go to a wooded area, you must protect exposed skin with tight clothing. It is also advisable to use repellents.

If the tick nevertheless bit an adult or a child, it is necessary to remove it correctly, treat the damaged area with an antiseptic, and take the insect to the laboratory for research on the possibility of infection with a dangerous disease.