LYME DISEASES, CAUSES AND SYMPTOMS.

Lyme disease: Causes, Symptoms and Treatment

Definition

Lyme disease is caused by a bacteria, Borrelia burgdorferi, that’s transmitted to humans through a bite from an infected black-legged or deer tick. Symptoms can occur anywhere from 3 to 30 days after the bite, and symptoms can be wide-ranging, depending on the stage of the infection.



Lyme disease

The chances you might get Lyme disease from a tick bite depend on the kind of tick, where you were when the bite occurred, and how long the tick was attached to you, according to the CDC. Black-legged ticks must be attached to you for at least 24 hours to transmit Lyme disease.

History

Interestingly, the disease only became apparent in 1975 when mothers of a group of children who lived near each other in Lyme, Conn., made researchers aware that their children had all been diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. This unusual grouping of illness that appeared “rheumatoid” eventually led researchers to the identification of the bacterial cause of the children’s condition, what was then named “Lyme disease” in 1982.

The only vector for Lyme disease in the U.S. is the black-legged tick, or deer tick, known as Ixodes scapularis. These ticks are carriers of the Lyme disease spirochete in their stomachs; Ixodes ticks may also transmit Powassan virus. The ticks then are vectors that can transmit the bacterium to humans with a tick bite. The number of cases of the tick-borne illness in an area depends on the number of ticks present