The Lyme disease is a bacterial infection that is transmitted by a tick bite. Most frequent symptoms of Lyme disease are fever, fatigue, headache and eritema. Because these symptoms are encountered in many other diseases, there must be done a differential examination diagnose.



Isodex scapularis, the deer tick or black tick is the vector infectious bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi. It is responsible for the occurrence of the Lyme disease. It normally lives in mice, squirrels and other small animals.

The tick has three developmental stages: larva, nymph and adult. When an infected tick feeds on blood of a sick animal, and ingest it, the bacteria will live in the intestine. These ticks will then infect other men or animals at their next meal. Most cases of infection occur at the end of spring or summer when the tiny tick nymphs are most active in the environment and human activities are frequent.

The rest live in the fur deer ticks, which do not contract the Lyme disease. The treatment for the Lyme disease consists of antibiotics.

Causes - The deer tick is the principal vector of the Lyme disease but has not been shown whether other ticks may or may not become vectors.

Other modes of transmission of disease: -people contacts; -transmission during pregnancy; -by blood transfusion; -from the animals.

Interpersonal transmission: it has not yet been proven that the disease can be transmitted by kissing, touching or sex with an infected person.

During pregnancy, the disease can lead to infection of the placenta and abortion have not yet been registered, neither negative effects on the fetus. If the mother is treated properly after the transmission of the disease with antibiotics, there should not be any risks.

Although there were not yet registered any cases of infection through blood transfusions, it has been discovered that the bacterium survives in infected blood donations. The patients or infected people can donate blood preserved for 12 months after the last dose of antibiotic treatment.

Pets can have the Lyme disease but there is no evidence that they may become vectors for human beings, instead they bring ticks into the house and garden. The disease is not transmitted through the squirrel or deer meat, but it should still be properly cooked to appropriate temperatures before eating.

Symptoms - The first sign of infection is usually called a circular migratory erythema. It occurs in 70-80% of infected people and the area of the tick bite begins to get red, after a period of three to thirty days. A distinguishing feature of skin is gradual expansion of several days, reaching up to 30 cm. The erythema may become normal colored center as they expand as compared with an ox-eye. It can be warm and painless. Some people develop other flushes in different areas over several days.

Later symptoms of Lyme disease: -fatigue; -chills; fever; -headache; -cramps; -lymphadenopathy. In some cases, redness may be absent. The later symptoms of Lyme disease, left untreated can help the infection to spread to other parts of the body in a few weeks, causing a variety of symptoms:-motor weakness of both sides of the face-Bell's palsy;-severe headache and neck pain due to meningitis;- pain that leads to insomnia;-throb and dizziness due to arrhythmias; -migratory pain to joints. Most symptoms resolve even without treatment.