Lyme Disease • Symptoms & Treatment

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What is Lyme disease?

Borreliosis is a collective term for all infectious diseases that are caused by a bacterium of the genus Borrelia (Borrelia). Since Lyme disease (Lyme disease) is the most common tick-borne disease in Europe and Germany, it is often equated with Lyme disease. In Germany, it is estimated that up to six percent of those bitten by ticks are infected, and less than two percent have a disease. Lyme disease is not contagious. In addition to ticks, mosquitoes can also transmit the borreliosis pathogen.

Lyme Disease Infection: Typical Symptoms

Basically, the course of Lyme disease can be divided into an early and a late form. Lyme disease is characterized by rapidly changing symptoms that often appear incoherent.

The incubation period (time between infection and outbreak) and the appearance of symptoms after the tick bite can vary widely. Stage I can last from days to weeks, stage II weeks to months, and stage III months to years.

Lyme disease symptoms in the early stages

• Wandering redness (Erythema migrans): The first signs of infection are often noticeable one to two weeks after a tick bite in the form of painful reddening. The ring-shaped reddening gradually migrates outwards.

• Symptoms of a Flu: Sore muscles, headache, joint pain, tiredness, slightly elevated temperature and night sweats. Typically, they keep coming back.

• Lymphocytomas (abnormally increased lymphatic cells) usually occur when the prick has occurred on the ear or nipple and show up as a bright red, nodular swelling.

• Acute neuroborreliosis: Symptoms such as nerve pain, paralysis (especially of facial nerves in children) or sensitivity disorders. In very rare cases they can lead to meningitis.

• Arrhythmia and myocarditis

Postponed Lyme disease symptoms and long-term effects

If the infection remains undetected and therefore untreated, incorrect diagnoses are made in many cases, such as rheumatism. This can actually be progressive joint inflammation (Lyme arthritis).

Borreliosis becomes undiscovered in the third stage of Herxheimer’s disease (acrodermatitis chronica atrophicans): The skin, mostly on the inside of the arms and legs, becomes thin and bluish in color. This can rarely lead to numbness and paralysis in the arms and legs (peripheral neuropathies) and chronic neuroborreliosis, which can easily be confused with the symptoms of multiple sclerosis.

Other non-specific symptoms are fatigue, exhaustion, headache, exhaustion and muscle pain. These are often mistakenly interpreted as depression. In adults, long-term neurological effects from borreliosis are relatively rare. Meningitis or facial paralysis (facial paralysis) is more common in children.

Lyme disease test for diagnosis

If Lyme disease is suspected, an anamnesis and physical examination are always carried out first. If the diagnosis of wandering redness is clear, a laboratory test can be dispensed with.

Laboratory diagnostics are carried out in the case of imprecise cases or if no reddening has occurred. The blood serum is routinely checked for Borrelia-specific antibodies. If neuroborreliosis is suspected, the liquor (spinal cord fluid) is examined.

If, despite positive symptoms and negative results, drug therapy is dispensed with, this can quickly lead to the late stage of Lyme disease and then to chronic diseases and complaints.

Treating Lyme Disease With Antibiotics

The earlier antibiotic therapy is initiated, the more successful it is – the early stages have the best chance of a cure. Taking antibiotics can usually prevent complications or chronic neuroborreliosis.

Depending on the stage and symptoms, different antibiotics are available:

• Stage I (for wandering redness and lymphocytoma): Doxycycline, amoxicillin, cefuroxime axetil, duration about 14 days

• Stage II (in acute neuroborreliosis): ceftriaxone, cefotaxime, doxycycline, penicillin, duration about 14 days

• Stage III (in chronic neuroborreliosis): Ceftriaxone, Cefotaxim, Doxycycline, duration about 14-28 days

• Herxheimer’s disease (acrodermatitis chronica atrophicans): Doxycycline, amoxicillin, cefuroxime axetil, duration about 21 days

• Carditis (inflammatory disease of the heart): ceftriaxone, cefotaxime, doxycycline, penicillin G, duration about 14 days

• Arthritis (joint inflammation): Doxycycline, Amoxicillin, Cefuroximaxetil, duration about 28 days

Children under eight years of age are not treated with doxycycline, as it disrupts the formation of tooth enamel. Amoxicillin should be used during pregnancy and while breastfeeding. Anyone who has once suffered from Lyme disease and has been cured is not immune.

Ticks: the most important facts!

How and where is Lyme disease transmitted?

Lyme disease can only be transmitted through a tick bite. The ticks attach themselves to wild animals (rodents, birds, deer and roe deer, for example), become infected with the bacteria and transmit them when a person bites. Due to their helical shape, Borrelia can penetrate the host’s blood and tissue and spread throughout the body.

There are many ways to come into contact with ticks: They mostly sit on tall grass and bushes or dead wood. If a person or an animal touches this place, the tick attaches itself. People who spend a lot of time in the forest, garden or park, both professionally and privately, are therefore very much at risk. Most infections are reported from March to October.

Preventing Lyme disease means avoiding tick bites

To reduce the risk of being stung by a tick, the following things should be observed:

• Apply tick-repellent before going outdoors. However, these only offer partial protection.

• Wear protective clothing in the forest or in the meadows. This includes closed shoes, long pants, long-sleeved shirts and high socks. Ticks can be detected more quickly on light-colored clothing.

• Avoid tall grass, plants deep in the ground and contact with dead wood.

• After gardening, walks in the woods and meadows, after contact with wild animals or pets lingering outside: Thoroughly search your body for ticks each time. Pay particular attention to soft skin areas such as armpits, back of the knees, belly button or scalp.

Vaccinate against Lyme disease?

Borrelia distinguish themselves from the pathogens of early summer meningoencephalitis (TBE). There is a vaccination against TBE; in the case of Lyme disease, a preventive vaccination is not possible.

Stung by a tick, what to do?

In order to keep the risk of infection as low as possible, the tick should be removed immediately after the tick bite. It is important that it is pulled straight up. The best way to do this is to use tapered tweezers that reach under the tick and pull it out accurately. So-called tick tongs often cause the tick’s body to burst or crush and thus release the bacteria at the puncture site. Even aids such as water, oil or adhesives do not help to remove the tick. On the contrary: they put the tick in a stressful situation so that it quickly empties its contents.

Since the tick’s sting is anchored, it sometimes gets stuck even after it has been properly removed. This can be removed with medical help, provided it does not fall out on its own.