Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts with the label tick-borne infections

Lyme Disease – Know the Signs and Symptoms

Lyme disease is an illness caused by bacteria from the species called Borrelia. This bacterium can live in the stomachs of deer and mice. When a tick feeds from an infected animal, they can become carriers of this bacterium. These ticks can spread the disease to a person by biting the skin thus allowing the bacterium to enter the human body. The disease cannot be spread from person to person. (Journals.uchicago.edu “Clinical Infectious Diseases,” accessed October 6, 2016). Symptoms of Lyme Disease Early symptoms of Lyme disease develop within days to weeks of the initial contact. The early symptoms include headaches, fever, weakness and fatigue. The area on the skin where the bacterium enter becomes inflamed with a red, circular, non-raised rash that eventually looks like a bull’s eye target. Not all patients develop this rash and the rash, swelling and redness can resolve on its own in about a month. Other early symptoms may include muscle and joint stiffness and swollen glan...