Lyme Disease

Medical Author: William C. Shiel Jr., MD, FACP, FACR

• What is Lyme disease? What causes Lyme disease?
• What is the history of Lyme disease?
• What are symptoms and signs of Lyme disease?
• How is Lyme disease diagnosed?
• What is the treatment for Lyme disease?
• How can Lyme disease be prevented? Is there a vaccine?
• Lyme Disease At A Glance
• Related Lyme disease articles:
  Lyme disease - on WebMD

What is Lyme disease? What causes Lyme disease?

Lyme disease is a bacterial illness caused by a bacterium called a "spirochete." In the United States, the actual name of the bacterium is Borrelia burgdorferi. In Europe, another bacterium, Borrelia afzelii, also causes Lyme disease. Certain ticks found on deer harbor the bacterium in their stomachs. Lyme disease is spread by these ticks when they bite the skin, which permits the bacterium to infect the body. Lyme disease is not contagious from an affected person to someone else. Lyme disease can cause abnormalities in the skin, joints, heart, and nervous system.

What is the history of Lyme disease?

Interestingly, the disease only became apparent in 1975 when mothers of a group of children who lived near each other in Lyme, Connecticut, made researchers aware that their children all were 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 called "Lyme disease" in 1982. The number of cases of the disease in an area depends on the amount of ticks in an area and how often the ticks are infected with the bacteria. In certain areas of New York, where Lyme disease is common, over half of the ticks are infected. Lyme disease has been reported most often in the northeastern United States, but it has been reported in all 50 states, as well as China, Europe, Japan, Australia, and the parts of the former Soviet Union. In the United States, it is primarily contracted in the Northeast from the state of Maine to Maryland, in the Midwest in Minnesota and Wisconsin, and in the West in Oregon and Northern California.

Picture of a deer tick transmitting Lyme disease

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