Lyme Disease-Causes and Treatments

Thesis Statement
The identification process of the true cause of the Lyme disease and the accurate diagnostic tools of the causal organism has significantly increased the knowledge of the disease since 1975. Several treatments are being developed and novel drugs are still in the pipeline. Thanks to the women of Connecticut and the doctors who led to the discovery of the bacterial cause of Lyme infection.

Causes of Lyme disease
Lyme disease is a bacterial infection caused by bacterium in the genus Borrelia generally known as spirochete although the bacterial species in Europe and United States tend to differ. The bacterium causing Lyme infection in the United States is Borrelia burgdorferi while that in Europe is Borrelia afzeli .the host organisms of the bacteria causing the infection are ticks which harbor spirochetes in their stomachs. These ticks are usually found on deer which serves rather as an intermediate host. Two types of ticks have been identified to cause Lyme disease in the United States the deer ticks and the western black-legged ticks (Nick, Stephen, 2004). The former type of ticks is typical in the Northeast and the Midwest of the United States while the latter is predominant along the Pacific coast particularly in the Oregon and northern California. The identification process of the true cause of the Lyme disease and the accurate diagnostic tools of the causal organism has significantly increased the knowledge of the disease since 1975. Several treatments are being developed and novel drugs are still in the pipeline. Thanks to the women of Connecticut and the doctors who led to the discovery of the bacterial cause of Lyme infection.

Lyme infection occurs only when the ticks bite the skin to permit bacterial entry otherwise without any skin bites on the body, infection is not feasible.  The infection cannot be spread from one person to another by contact it is not a contagious disease and healthy individuals are never exposed to any risk when they touch the skins or fluids of infected individuals. The infected individuals may complain of skin problems which might present some abnormalities. The paining of the joints is also not unusual and there could be some cardiac function interferences commonly represented as inflammation of the heart tissues and arrhythmias (Boltri, Vogel, 2002). Cardiac arrest may also occur due to a simple bite from a carrier tick. The nervous system of the infected individual has some aberration meaning that some sensory and motor functions in the diseased cases are not fully normal.

The cause of the disease was only identified in 1975 in Lyme, Connecticut. The discovery followed several complaints from the women of Lyme living close to each other that all their children had tested positive with the rheumatoid arthritis diagnosis. The researchers of Connecticut were challenged in their unusual identification of the disease which appeared to represent rheumatoid signs. Doctors finally identified the exact cause of the infection in the children of Connecticut as bacterial. The condition was later in 1982 renamed Lyme disease and was treated appropriately not as rheumatoid arthritis.

It was then established that ticks are carriers of the Lyme disease pathogen and they harbor several bacteria in their stomachs. The ticks therefore act as vectors which transmit the pathogen to healthy humans through bites. The epidemiology of the disease in an area will therefore depend on the population of ticks that is present and the frequency of bacterial infection of the ticks by the pathogen. For instance, in particular areas of New York which experience several cases of Lyme disease infection, more than half of the total tick population are infected with the Lyme disease causing spirochete. The disease is more predominant in the northeastern parts of the United States although it has also been reported in all the 50 states in the United States, (Ekins, et al, 1999, p.4). The disease is also common in Europe, china, Australia, Japan and other parts of the former Soviet Union. The disease is mainly contracted in the United States primarily in the Northeast from the Maine state to Maryland. It is also contracted in the Northern California and the West in Oregon and in the Midwest in Wisconsin and Minnesota.

Treatment of Lyme disease
Lyme disease being a bacterial infection is effectively managed using antibiotics. Although it has been argued that the response of Lyme disease to antibiotics is poor, the lack of the disease in the patient in the first place should be blamed. It might be caused of misdiagnosis of the disease and if there is no Lyme disease in the patient, how can it be expected that the patient responds to antibiotics meant for Lyme disease

Interventions into treatment of the disease have been thorough and doctors have come up with specific treatments for specific stages of the disease such as late or early and the part of the body of the affected patient. Oral medications are recommended for early stages of the disease and patients can have doxycycline antibiotics, amoxicillin or even cerufuroxime axetil can have good result in illnesses which have not advanced. Early stages of the disease can present as a bulls-eye skin rash which often develops around the area of a tick bite (Karen, 2003). In this case, medical attention should be sought as soon as possible and the patient should be put on the antibiotics, amoxicillin or doxycycline and the condition always vanishes within a week or two without long-term complications. Howver, later stages of infections presented by the nervous system infection may require administration of intravenous medications such as ceftriaxone and penicillin G.

Lyme disease can be a very painful experience among the patients. Pain management is therefore an important aspect in treating the infection. Pain medications are not meant to kill the causal pathogen but to relieve the patient of the pain. Oral medications such as ibuprofen have shown great efficacy in reducing inflammation and also improving function. From a simple tick bite, a patient can develop swollen joints due to Lyme disease, (Reed, 2001, p.545). The swollen joints may require a doctor to remove them through a procedure called arthrocentesis. In this procedure, fluid is removed from joints where a swelling is seen and this process requires utmost sterile conditions when using needles and syringes for aspiration. This procedure is usually done in the offices of doctors or technicians with exceptional experience.

The arthritic condition may however proceed even with appropriate administration of antibiotics. In fact, other researchers have pointed out that the inflammation of the joints can persist even after fully eradicating the Lyme bacteria. Some of the explanations which have been put forward to explain the persistence of the Lyme condition despite the eradication of the causal pathogen include the immunological arguments. Researchers have blamed the autoimmune response to be responsible of the continued arthritic condition such as the inflammation of the joints which is initially evoked by the original infection by Lyme bacteria.

Another possible way to manage Lyme disease is the prevention part of it. since it is already established that the ticks are responsible in causing the disease, it is of importance to embrace the techniques which ensure that tick-bites are kept at bay. These techniques should be applied especially when visiting tick infested areas. The spraying of insect repellant chemicals containing N,N-Diethyl-meta-toluamide (DEET) onto the parts of the body that are exposed. Individuals in risky areas can wear long pants which can also be tucked into the boots. Long sleeved shirts can also be worn to protect the hands from tick-bites (Nick, Stephen, 2004). The clothing, pets and the children should be regularly be checked for ticks and the bathing and thorough washing of clothing after visiting tick infested area can help prevent the tick-bites and the transmission of the Lyme disease.

Efforts to develop appropriate vaccines for Lyme disease have not yielded potential results. Prior to 25th February, 2002, there were vaccines in the market until LYMErix TM was withdrawn from the commercial medical shelves by its manufacturer. There have not been major developments of a vaccine for Lyme disease despite the advanced technological advancement in the area of immunology and bacteriology. It should be a challenge to medical researchers to come up with a vaccine to protect humans from the dangers of Lyme disease (Boltri, Vogel, 2002). More than three decades down the line, there has not been an effective vaccine for the management of the disease. The similar effort that was shown by the doctors of Connecticut in the identification of the Lyme pathogen should be applied in the development of the vaccine that will protect human cells from the Lyme bacteria.