LYME DISEASE / LYME BORRELIOSIS

We combat Lyme disease effectively

A tick bite is extremely dangerous, and its effects may impact the human body for years. The Lyme disease that is triggered by a bite from infected tick can be treated more effectively, if the treatment is carried out soon after the bite and in specialized health care unit.

Since the 1990s, a significant increase in the incidence of tick-borne diseases has been observed in European countries, including Poland.

In Europe, the incidence rate for Borreliosis, known as Lyme disease, is on average 65.4 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, with the highest number of cases taking place in the countries of Northern and Eastern Europe. This is a new disease, because it is recognized only from the second half of the 1980s.

Doctors warn – you cannot ignore ticks. They can be found not only on forest roads and in meadows, but even in cities, entering apartments through open doors, windows, or air ducts. Note: they feed when the temperature rises, after the winter, to 7-10 degrees.

It is known that the risk of infection depends on exposure to tick bites, but also on the place of residence – that is, from the proximity of forest areas or green areas where ticks can be found. It is affected by the work done by foresters or farmers in the field, as well as activity during recreation – hence ticks “like” gardeners, mushroom pickers, hunters, as well as people doing outdoor sports.

Remember that the tick does not have to bite to cause Lyme disease: it’s enough if it leaves feces on the skin!

In Europe, at least three genotypes of Borrelia burgdorferi are pathogenic to humans.

This bacterium causes the dissolution of the host’s tissues, it is very mobile due to the unique movement apparatus, composed of internal vibracula, arranged in a beam, moving in a rotational motion.

The most dangerous are the bites of tick nymphs that carry the spirochetes. Nymphs are individuals between the larva and the adult form of the tick, that reach the size of 1-2 mm.

Ticks pick thin and wet part of the victim’s skin and therefore most often they chose head and upper body in children, and the base of the hair, around the neck, underarms, on the chest, in the groin and under the knees in adults.

Bacteria multiply very quickly and can cause, so called, erythema migrating – visible in approximately 40-50% of attacked people. This is the first symptom of Lyme disease, and thanks to it you can – and you should get treated as soon as possible.

However, the first symptoms do not have to appear quickly, e.g. next day after the bite. They can appear even up to one month after the tick bite!

Usually a red spot or papule appears, which grows and travels in the form of a ringlike formation, usually flat.

The patient feels tiredness, muscle aches, chills, fever, stiff neck and throat inflammation.

At a later stage, the disease can cause myocarditis, and for up to two years after the bite, arthritis may occur, attacking mostly wrist, elbow and knee joints.

The list of complications, the effects of Lyme disease, is completed with chronic progressive encephalomyelitis.

If you detect a tick and remove it even at the moment of biting, you must check yourself into the clinic, undergo diagnostics and probably after it – treatment.

Do not hesitate: the sooner you start the therapy, the shorter it is and the better chance it gives to minimize the damage to the body..