Lyme disease?

Question

What exactly is Lyme disease and can you die from it?

Answer 1

Lyme disease in its purest sense is an illness which comes from a bacteria called Borrelia Burgdorferi. In about 40% of the cases it causes a reddening rash .
SYMPTOMS

Clinical manifestations of Lyme disease generally follow 3 stages of disease progression (ie, early localized, early disseminated, chronic disseminated), all of which are potentially curable by antibiotic therapy. Infection progresses to disseminated disease in approximately 50% of untreated patients.

The incidence of Lyme-related neurologic manifestations is described broadly in the literature. One study cites the following frequencies of neurologic involvement: cranial neuritis (50-60%), meningitis (25%), radiculoneuritis (45%), and CNS involvement (15-20%). The same study reports the following signs and symptoms in patients with meningitis: headache (50%), fatigue (40%), fever/myalgia (30%), neck stiffness (20%), and photophobia (10%). Other sources report that cranial neuropathies occur in 5-10% of untreated patients with Lyme disease, while lymphocytic meningitis develops in 10-15% of such patients. As many as 30% of patients affected by disseminated Lyme borreliosis present with a chronic radiculoneuropathy.

One can die from lyme disease if the bacteria goes untreated. More often secondary problems such as certain cancers, depression (followed by suicide), and systemic shutdown causing other things like MS, ALS, SLE which lead to death can occur.

The tests are not very accurate, and the best one is the Lyme Western Blot through a CLIA certified (govt certified) laboratory who does full band reporting and has high CDC proficiency ratings. The two labs that seem to report most fully are IgeneX and MDL

Answer 2

Look it up on medicinenet.com