Lyme disease
Lyme disease – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Do I got it?
Lyme disease
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Lyme Disease Classification and external resources |
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|---|---|
| Nymphal and adult deer ticks can be carriers of Lyme disease. Nymphs are about the size of a poppy seed. | |
| ICD-10 | A69.2 |
| ICD-9 | 088.81 |
| DiseasesDB | 1531 |
| MedlinePlus | 001319 |
| eMedicine | med/1346 ped/1331 neuro/521 emerg/588 |
| MeSH | D008193 |
Lyme disease, or borreliosis, is an emerging infectious disease caused by at least three species of bacteria belonging to the genus Borrelia.[1] Borrelia burgdorferi is the predominant cause of Lyme disease in the United States, whereas Borrelia afzelii and Borrelia garinii are implicated in most European cases.
Lyme disease is the most common tick-borne disease in the Northern Hemisphere. Borrelia is transmitted to humans by the bite of infected hard ticks belonging to several species of the genus Ixodes.[2] Early manifestations of infection may include fever, headache, fatigue, depression, and a characteristic skin rash called erythema migrans. Left untreated, late manifestations involving the joints, heart, and nervous system can occur. In most cases, the infection and its symptoms are eliminated with antibiotics, especially if diagnosis and treatment occur early in the course of illness. Late, delayed, or inadequate treatment can lead to late manifestations of Lyme disease which can be disabling and difficult to treat.[3]
Some Lyme disease patients who have completed a course of antibiotic treatment continue to have symptoms such as severe fatigue, sleep disturbance, and cognitive difficulties. Some groups have argued that “chronic” Lyme disease is responsible for a range of medically unexplained symptoms beyond the objectively recognized manifestations of late Lyme disease, and that additional, long-term antibiotic treatment is warranted in such cases.[4] Of four randomized controlled trials of long-term antibiotic courses in patients with ongoing symptoms, two found no benefit[5][6], and two found inconsistent benefits and significant side effects and risks from further antibiotic treatment.[7][8][9] Most expert groups including the Infectious Diseases Society of America and the American Academy of Neurology have found that existing scientific evidence does not support a role for Borrelia nor ongoing antibiotic treatment in such cases.[10][11]
Have you been exposed to ticks? A vet friend of mine got it trying to prove to the Health Director that animals coming in to animal control should be dipped.
Say I did the gravtar thing. Don’t know if I did it right as I only created one and submitted it. Don’t know if they show up automatically or not.
Say Pat I didn’t see to do that little gravatar thing that I would be signed up as a member of word press!
Hey Bonnie, it worked!
Wouldn’t that be nice, a misdiagnosis. My friend was told he has a chronic runny nose when really his spinal fluid was leaking. Doctors don’t know everything! Well, its a thought.
Shortly after my son turned a year old, I was so sick for two years and lost weight until I barely weighed 90 pounds. Had the whole battery of GI tests and finally the doctor said he was going to assume it was helicobacter pylori and gave me an antibiotic cocktail to take for several weeks. Fixed it! Sometimes he still apologizes for not thinking of that sooner. That’s nothing compared to what you are going through but does prove that for all humankind knows about the human body, there’s still so many variables that a misdiagnosis is too easy to make. So long as you are breathing, I will continue hoping and praying that someone made a mistake.