Understanding Lyme Disease

There are various health problems that we are all familiar with and understand. These tend to be common problems that we might have experienced ourselves, might have known someone else to suffer from, or something that we are educated on by the media and various charitable organisations who request donations in order to fund research into developing cures and effective treatments. Then there are a whole host of rare illnesses and diseases that we’ve probably never heard of and probably won’t ever have to think about or understand in our day to day lives. In the middle lie diseases that we’ve heard of, but simply don’t know much about. Lyme disease tends to lie in this middle ground. So, it’s time to familiarise yourself with it, if only to widen your understanding of the world and others’ experiences. Here are a few things that you should know!

The Basics

Put simply, lyme disease is a bacterial infection that is spread by ticks. Early symptoms include a red circular rash developing around a tick bite. This rash can appear up to three months following the bite and can last for several weeks. However, it’s important to remember that some individuals don’t experience a rash. They may, instead, develop flu-like symptoms, such as a high temperature, shivering, headaches, muscle and joint pain, tiredness, and loss of energy. Generally speaking, lyme disease is much easier to resolve if caught in the early stages of its development. However, there are cases where the disease has been cured at a later date. Consider the story of a woman who travelled from Canada to Florida for lyme disease treatment - check it out!

Removing Ticks

If you find that you have a tick, you need to remove it from your body properly. If you identify a tick on your body, you should remove it with fine-pointed tweezers or a specialist tick removing tool. Grasp the tick at a point as close to your skin as possible. Next, slowly pull upwards. Avoid crushing or squeezing the tick, then dispose of it safely. Once the tick has been removed, clean the bite mark with soap and water, then use an antiseptic cream on the site. Your risk of developing lyme disease is relatively low, but if you find that you experience any of the symptoms above, you should visit your doctor to be on the safe side.

Treatment

If you do develop lyme disease and contact your doctor as soon as possible, your doctor will be able to identify it and prescribe you with a course of antibiotics. It is important that you take these as prescribed and finish the course, regardless of whether your symptoms alleviate before the end of the course. If your symptoms are intense, you might be referred to hospital for antibiotic injections.

These are just the basics of lyme disease. However, hopefully, the above information has helped to familiarise you with its causes, symptoms, and treatments.