What is Lyme Disease?
Lyme disease is an infection caused by the spirochetal bacteria– Borrelia Burgdorferi.
How Is Lyme Disease Transmitted?
Lyme disease, or Borrelia Burgdorferi, is typically transmitted through the bite of an infected tick. The most common carrier is the blacklegged deer tick, Ixodes Scapularis. However, various types of ticks have been known to transmit the disease, and can be found in all fifty states. Along with Borrelia Burgdorferi, ticks often carry other co-infections such as Babesia, Bartonella and Ehrlichia.
Additionally, studies have revealed that Lyme disease can also be passed through the placenta of a pregnant woman to her unborn fetus, therefore allowing Lyme to be a gestational disease.
DNA of the bacteria has been found in breast milk, as well as suspected in cases of sexual transmission, but research on these two potential means of transmission is still pending.
Lyme Disease Testing
Because Chronic Lyme disease evades the immune system, Lyme disease is only detectable by conventional testing when it is in its earliest stages. If the bacterial infection becomes chronic, the rate of false-negatives in testing increases exponentially.
Lyme Disease Treatment
When detected in its early stage, Lyme disease is treatable with an appropriate course of antibiotic therapy. If undetected and untreated, the bacteria replicates and the disease progresses into its late stages, becoming chronic. Treatment for Chronic Lyme disease is prolonged and complex. Patients often require years of intensive conventional and alternative therapies to fight the infection, recover immune function, and gain strength.