What is Lyme disease? What causes Lyme disease?

Lyme disease is a bacterial illness. Certain ticks found on deer harbour the bacterium in their stomachs. Lyme disease is spread by these ticks when they bite the skin, which permits the bacterium to infect the body. Lyme disease is not contagious from an affected person to someone else. Lyme disease can cause abnormalities in the skin, joints, heart, and nervous system.

What are symptoms and signs of Lyme disease?
Lyme disease affects different areas of the body in varying degrees as it progresses. The site where the tick bites the body is where the bacteria enter through the skin. As the bacteria spread in the skin away from the initial tick bite, the infection causes an expanding reddish rash that is often associated with "flu-like" symptoms. Later, it can produce abnormalities in the joints, heart, and nervous system.
In the early phase of the illness, within days to weeks of the tick bite, the skin around the bite develops an expanding ring of unraised redness. There may be an outer ring of brighter redness and a central area of clearing, leading to a "bull's-eye" appearance. More than one in four patients never get a rash. The redness of the skin is often accompanied by generalised fatigue, muscle and joint stiffness, swollen lymph nodes ("swollen glands"), and headache resembling symptoms of a virus infection.
The redness resolves, without treatment, in about a month. Weeks to months after the initial redness of the skin, the bacteria and their effects spread throughout the body. Subsequently, disease in the joints, heart, and nervous system can occur.
The later phases of Lyme disease can affect the heart, causing inflammation of the heart muscle. This can result in abnormal heart rhythms and heart failure. The nervous system can develop facial muscle paralysis (Bell's palsy), abnormal sensation due to disease of peripheral nerves (peripheral neuropathy), meningitis, and confusion. Arthritis, or inflammation in the joints, begins with swelling, stiffness, and pain. Usually, only one or a few joints become affected, most commonly the knees. The arthritis of Lyme disease can look like many other types of inflammatory arthritis and can become chronic.
Researchers have also found that anxiety and depression occur with an increased rate in people with Lyme disease. This is another important aspect of the evaluation and management of this condition.

Leptospirosis & Weil’s Disease
 

What it is
Leptospirosis is a bacterial infection carried in rat’s urine which may contaminate water in lakes, rivers, etc. The bacteria does not survive long in dry conditions or salt water. The risk of infection is greater in stagnant or slow-moving water but cases have occurred in swift moving streams and lowland rivers. There is an enhanced risk where flash floods have washed out rat runs.
The infection is caught by direct contact with the urine or polluted environment. Bacteria enter through skin abrasions or via eyes, nose or mouth.
The usual incubation is 2 to 12 days. Usually a ‘flu’ like illness occurs which resolves in 2-3 weeks. There may be fever, severe headache, pains in the back and calf and prostration. A few cases develop Jaundice, when the condition is known as Weil’s disease.
Weil’s disease is however, a serious ilness and must be swiftly diagnosed and treated. Death may occur in about 15% of Weil’s disease cases (i.e. jaundiced patients) but death without jaundice is virtually unknown. Antibiotics during the first few days help in limiting infection. Many cases recover without specific treatment.
How to prevent it

· Cover all cuts and abrasions with waterproof plasters
· Always wear footwear to avoid cutting the feet
· Avoid immersion in suspect waters
· Where possible shower soon after being in suspect waters
· If in doubt contact your doctor early
 

Ros Roderigo
District Councillor