Lime disease
Lime diseaseLime Disease
Lyme disease is caused by Borrelia burgdorferi, which is a tick-borne spirochete.
The dangers of this disease became more publicised in 1977, where a geographic
grouping of children in Lyme, Conneticut were thought to have juvenile rheumatoid
arthritis1. Soon after, it was discovered that lyme disease was an illness that mainly
affects the skin, nervous system, heart, and joints. The borrelia species is part of the
eubacterial phylum of spirochetes. Containted within a protoplasmic cylinder is a cell
membrane, followed by wavy flagella, and then an outer membrane. The genes
encoded within the outer membrane are located on plasmids which allows the organism
to make antigenic changes in these proteins. When a borrelia cell attaches to its host,
the whole outer membrane moves to one end of the cylinder, which is called capping to
patching1. B. burgdorferi do not live in water, soil, or plants. Borrelia grow slowly
compared to most bacteria. They elongate for 12 to 24 hours before dividing into two
cells. B. burgdorferi is approximately 20 to um long and 0.2 to 0.25 um wide, with 7 to
11 flagella. More than 30 proteins are contained within B. burgdorferi1. This bacteria
uses white-footed mice, mosquitoes, and deer as their hosts.
This disease does not discriminate between sex and age; male and female, as
well as old and young are affected. It is widely distributed around the world in the
temperate zones3. A person is infected when a black-legged tick imbeds itself into
them while out in the open in wodded and forested areas. This usually occurs between
the months of May and July. Tick abundance is associated with humidity, temperature,
landscape slope, forested areas with sandy soils, and the extremity of residential
development?.
Generally, lyme disease occurs in stages, which are not always clear-cut; they
may overlap. The first stage involves the injection of B. burgdorferi by the tick. Shortly
thereafter (3 days to 4 months), it spreads throughout the skin, causing erythema
migrans (EM), which is basically a skin lesion. This lesion can vary in size, body site,
color, duration, intensity, and recurrence. Erythema migrans is a marker of the
disease, yet may also be absent altogether. EM resolves spontaneously in a few
weeks or months4. Also like to occur during this stage are mild fever, chills, headache,
and stiff neck (flu-like symptoms)?.
Within days or weeks after infection, in stage 2, the specimen has been seen in
specimens of myocardium, retina, muscle, bone, spleen, liver and brain1. Secondary
skin lesions may occur but are smaller and migrate less. The main symptoms include
fatigue and excruciating headache, lasting only hours or days. Meningitis, poor
memory, mood change, cardiac problems, and facial palsy are also very common.
They may recur or become chronic1. Six months later (on average), many patients
have brief...
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