LYME DISEASE

                                         

 If you’ve spent any time outdoors, you’ve likely encountered ticks at some point. Ticks usually attach to animals, but sometimes they may bite you too. Ticks can spread diseases, including Lyme disease. Lyme disease is weird, and mysterious and could be a stubborn disease.

    Celebrity musician and pop singer Avril Lavigne had even been diagnosed with Lyme disease. She has been following a severe battle with the disease. Lavigne revealed and opened up in news interviews about her symptoms, treatment, recovery, and health.

 How does Lyme disease spread?

 

Lyme disease is a tick-borne infection that affects any organ of the body, muscles, and joints including the brain and nervous system, and heart.

 Lyme disease emerged over the past three decades in the majority of Asia, North America, and Europe, especially in areas associated with woodland habitats and green space.

 Ticks are the leading carriers of Lyme disease. Ticks are small, blood-sucking bugs. They can change in size from as tiny as a pin’s head to as large as a marble. They can transmit the disease to human hosts. Ticks get infected when they feed on small rodents are reservoirs for the bacteria and spread to humans typically by nymphs (immature ticks). Those working in and visiting tick areas are most at risk of acquiring the infection.

 The risk of Lyme Disease multiplies during the summer when ticks are aggressive, but they can be found year-round in areas where temperatures are cold.

 What are the symptoms?

 Most of the people who are bitten by a Lyme-carrying tick don't realize that infected immediately. The bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi is transferred to humans by its bite. Lyme disease causes different symptoms, and it usually starts within several days to a few weeks after a tick bite, illness with several symptoms like a red expanding rash (known as erythema migrans), a headache, weakness, chills, flu-like symptoms, fever, fatigue, muscle and joint aches, and swollen lymph nodes. The patient will eventually lose their ability to walk independently

 As soon as you notice its rash and other possible symptoms, consult your healthcare provider.

 Diagnosis

Diagnosing and treating the disease is difficult. Doctors base a diagnosis of Lyme disease on a careful and detailed history and a complete physical examination supported by laboratory testing when appropriate.

If diagnosed early, Lyme disease patients will be prescribed antibiotics and may recover thoroughly. But sometimes it will take years to diagnose, by which point, the disease may have caused permanent neurological or cardiac damage.

Treatments

    Lyme disease is often treated effectively with oral antibiotics, but a small number of patients require intravenous antibiotic therapy. Neurologic-related symptoms may also need intravenous therapy.

    The good news is once a person is healed, they are no longer infected. However, it can take months, and sometimes years, before you feel entirely well.

    Bad news: is that there is no immunity. You could very quickly get Lyme disease again if you get bitten by another tick. So, you better be aware.

     Lyme disease is a big deal. What’s important is to seek your doctor’s expert advice as soon as you suspect a tick bite anywhere in your body.