What is Lyme Disease?
Lyme disease is an infection, or illness, caused
by the corkscrew-shaped bacterium (spirochete)
Borrelia burgdorferi. The bacterium is
transmitted from ticks to white-footed mice,
the white-tailed deer, other mammals, and birds
to dogs, horses. Ticks feed by inserting their
mouths into the skin of a host and slowly taking
in blood. The bacterial transmission does not
usually occur until the tick has been attached
for at least 36 hours.
Is Lyme disease found
in Maine? The greatest concentrations
of Lyme disease cases are in the Northeast,
the upper Midwest, and Pacific Northwest. In
Maine, the greatest risk of contracting Lyme
disease is during spring and summer months.
June and July are the times that the nymphal
ticks tend to feed and transmit the bacteria.
Nymphal ticks are tiny (less than 2mm) and are
not easily noticed on people. Adult ticks are
often found in the late fall and can also transmit
the bacteria. Because they are larger they are
more likely to be found and removed.
adult female tick
adult
male tick nymph
larva
{Note: above scale is 1 inch}
Protecting yourself
from Lyme disease: You can decrease
the chances of being bitten by a tick by following
these simple precautions:
- • Avoid tick-infected
areas (especially in May, June and July).
• Removing leaves, leaf litter, and
clearing brush around houses and at the
edges of lawns may reduce the number of
ticks that transmit Lyme disease.
• Use flea and tick collars on your
pets and brush them carefully after they
have been outdoors.
• Wear light colored clothing so you
can spot ticks more easily.
• Tuck pant legs into socks or boots
and shirt into pants.
• Tape the area where pants and socks
meet so that ticks cannot crawl under clothing
• Wear a long-sleeved shirt for added
protection.
• Spray insect repellent containing
a 20-30% concentration of DEET on clothes
and on exposed skin other than the face,
or treat clothes (especially pants, socks,
and shoes) with permethrin, which kills
ticks on contact
• Walk in the center of trails to
avoid contact with overgrown grass and brush
at trail edges.
• After being outdoors, remove your
clothing and wash and dry it at high temperature;
inspect your body carefully and remove attached
ticks with tweezers, grasping the tick as
close to the skin surface as possible and
pulling straight back with a slow steady
force; avoid crushing the tick’s body.
• If you remove a tick from yourself
or your pet and would like to have it identified,
place the tick in a small vial of alcohol
inside a crushproof container. Mail the
package to the following address along with
information including the name and age if
from a person, type of animal or source,
the location where acquired, and the date
found: MMCRI-Lyme Disease Research Laboratory,
13 Charles St, Third Floor, Portland, ME
Many of the symptoms of Lyme disease
are similar to those of other diseases. The
fever, muscle aches, and fatigue can be mistaken
for the flu or infectious mononucleosis. Joint
pain can be mistaken for other types of arthritis.
Your doctor will diagnose Lyme disease based
on history of possible exposure, symptoms, and
by running blood tests that detect whether the
patient has antibodies to the bacterium that
causes Lyme.
The
early stage of Lyme disease is usually marked
by one or more of the following signs and symptoms:
fatigue, chills and fever, headache, muscle
and joint pain, swollen lymph nodes, and or
a characteristic skin rash (called erythema
migrans). It is a red circular patch that appears
at the site of the tick bite usually within
3 days to 1 month after the bite of an infected
tick. The patch then grows larger, and sometimes
many patches appear. Common sites are the thighs,
trunk, groin, and armpits. The center of the
rash may clear as it enlarges, resulting in
what looks like a “bull’s-eye.”
The rash may be warm, but it is not usually
painful.
Some symptoms of Lyme disease
may not appear until weeks, months, or years
after a tick bite. These symptoms may include,
arthritis, nervous system problems such as numbness,
pain, facial nerve paralysis and meningitis
(fever, stiff neck, and severe headache), and/or
irregularities of the heart rhythm (rare).
Treatment for Lymes
disease and prognosis: The treatment
is generally oral antibiotics. Patients treated
in the early stages with antibiotics usually
recover completely and quickly. Most patients
who are treated in the later stages of the disease
also respond well to antibiotics. Residual or
recurrent symptoms are possible.
Vaccination:
There is no longer a vaccine available for Lyme
disease due to discontinued production of the
vaccine. If you received the vaccine (Lyme disease)
before 2002, you are probably no longer protected
against the disease.
Resources: Maine Bureau of Health,
Dept. of Health and Human Services, Center for
Disease Control and Prevention
