If I Have Had Lyme Disease Can I Get It Again
How can Lyme disease last for years?
Category: Health Published: October 9, 2015
Public Domain Image, source: CDC/James Gathany.
If treated, Lyme affliction does not terminal for years. Yet, for some people, the after-furnishings of the affliction can linger for months and sometimes fifty-fifty years. Alternative medicine providers call this condition "Chronic Lyme disease," merely this championship is simply wrong. For a person who has been infected with Lyme disease and so treated, the leaner that causes Lyme affliction is measurably no longer present in his trunk, even though he may all the same feel some symptoms. The correct title for this condition is therefore "Postal service-treatment Lyme Disease Syndrome."
Lyme illness is an infection caused past a bacteria known as Borrelia burgdorferi. This bacteria is delivered to humans through tick bites. From the seize with teeth site, the bacteria can enter the bloodstream and spread throughout the trunk. Usually, merely non always, an infectious tick bite causes a characteristic blood-red rash at the site of the bite. Other symptoms include fever, muscle soreness, headache, fatigue, and dizziness. In a few cases, symptoms can also include mood swings, memory loss, and sleep disturbance. If left untreated for besides long, Lyme affliction can lead to nerve damage, thereby causing shooting hurting, numbness, and even paralysis.
The practiced news is that since Lyme illness is acquired past bacteria, antibiotics do a good job of eliminating the disease. Taking antibiotics for one to four weeks, every bit directed past a doctor, successfully kills all the Lyme-disease bacteria in the patient's body. Unfortunately, a small percent of people continue to feel symptoms for many months or even years later these bacteria have been eliminated. For such a person, calling his status Chronic Lyme disease is incorrect since Lyme-disease leaner are no longer nowadays in his body. Too, since there are no Lyme-affliction bacteria in his body, giving such a person more antibiotics over the grade of months and years accomplishes cipher.
Researchers do not currently know conclusively what causes Post-handling Lyme Affliction Syndrome. There are ii likely culprits: residual tissue impairment and auto-allowed malfunction. As mentioned before, the Lyme-disease bacteria can damage fretfulness. Depending on the amount of damage, information technology tin can simply have months for the nerves to heal, fifty-fifty long afterward the bacteria are gone. The good news is that they eventually do heal. Almost all people with Post-handling Lyme Affliction Syndrome somewhen feel better. The other possible culprit is an auto-immune disorder that is triggered by the Lyme affliction. The patient's own allowed system works so difficult at killing off the infectious leaner that it ends up attacking the patient'due south own salubrious cells long after the bacteria are gone. Again, most people that experience this outcome eventually feel better after several months.
Unfortunately, many of the symptoms of Post-treatment Lyme Illness Syndrome; muscle soreness, joint pain, headache, fatigue, angst, etc.; are vague symptoms that could be acquired by many other atmospheric condition. Lupus, Crohn's illness, HIV, fibromyalgia, CFS, multiple sclerosis, and rheumatoid arthritis are all conditions that could be easily mistaken equally Post-treatment Lyme Disease Syndrome. For this reason, the number of people misdiagnosed with Mail service-treatment Lyme Disease Syndrome or "Chronic Lyme disease" is likely loftier. Fortunately, a simple claret test for elevated levels of the corresponding antibody can determine whether a person has had Lyme disease, even if the Lyme-affliction leaner are no longer present. Since antibiotic levels tin stay elevated long after the leaner that triggered them are gone, a positive antibody claret exam does not hateful that a person currently has Lyme disease, just that he has had Lyme disease in the past.
Some alternative medicine providers use the phrase "Chronic Lyme illness" as a catch-all diagnosis for any person experiencing general fatigue. Such a diagnosis is neither logical nor helpful. If a patient did not receive a tick bite, did not develop a rash, does not have the other symptoms, and does not have positive blood tests, at that place is no scientific reason to presume that the patient has Lyme illness or has always had Lyme illness. Misdiagnosing a patient prolongs the time earlier he is able to find and treat the existent cause of his symptoms. Since the concept of Chronic Lyme affliction every bit a diagnosis for general fatigue is not supported by scientific evidence, any website or publication that claims this should be approached with skepticism.
The CDC states,
It is not uncommon for patients treated for Lyme disease with a recommended 2 to 4 week course of antibiotics to accept lingering symptoms of fatigue, hurting, or joint and muscle aches at the time they finish treatment. In a pocket-size percent of cases, these symptoms tin final for more half-dozen months. Although sometimes chosen "chronic Lyme affliction," this condition is properly known equally "Postal service-treatment Lyme Disease Syndrome" (PTLDS)...studies have not shown that patients who received prolonged courses of antibiotics do better in the long run than patients treated with placebo.
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Source: https://wtamu.edu/~cbaird/sq/2015/10/09/how-can-lyme-disease-last-for-years/
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