The global spread of Lyme disease is driven by climate change, making diagnosis and treatment more difficult. Lyme disease is a bacterial infection caused by Borrelia burgdorferi, which is transmitted to humans through the bite of an infected tick.
These spider-like arachnids have evolved to produce anti-inflammatory substances that coat their food, allowing pathogens to enter the bloodstream undetected. .
First identified in 1975 in Lyme, Connecticut, Lyme disease has spread throughout the world, creating a growing health problem.
According to Professor Jack Lambert, chief medical specialist at University College Dublin, Lyme disease is a multifaceted condition that can affect a number of body systems, including the nervous system. central, musculoskeletal system and organs such as the bladder and intestines.
This can cause a wide range of symptoms, reflecting the complexity of this disease, as reported by Indonesia: BBC.
Brian Fallon, director of the Lyme Disease and Tick Research Center at Columbia University, observed that misdiagnosis is common, leading to continued skepticism about the validity of a patient’s symptoms.
This has led some health care providers to question whether patients are overthinking or overthinking their illness, thereby hindering effective treatment and care.
Diagnosing Lyme disease is challenging because of the overemphasis on the bull’s-eye rash, which is not always a reliable indicator.
As Lambert says, “A rash is not always bull. This rash can be elliptical, hard, blistered, or swollen. On dark skin, this rash doesn’t look like a bullseye at all.” This often leads to misdiagnosis, with doctors mistaking it for conditions such as ringworm.
A personal story illustrates the challenge, when a patient was bitten by a tick and developed an extensive rash, but many doctors ignored it because of the appearance of the rash.
Only after seeking treatment in the US was the patient diagnosed with Lyme disease and prescribed doxycycline, which initially provided relief but led to a diagnosis of Lyme disease syndrome after treatment when symptoms returned.
Documentary filmmaker Richard Wilson faced a similar investigative problem after being bitten by a tick in 2016.
Despite the rash, she was told it wasn’t Lyme disease because it didn’t look like bull’s eye. Chronic symptoms and negative test results led to years of misdiagnosis.
Lambert draws parallels with COVID 19they noted that some people still had symptoms despite a negative test.
He emphasized the need for better education, saying, “When it comes to Lyme disease, we seem to lack education at all levels of medical practice. Gaslighting is a big problem. “
Lyme disease is a significant public health problem, affecting approximately 476,000 people in the US each year, primarily through the bite of the black-legged tick.
A 2022 review in the British Medical Journal Global Health suggests that more than 10% of the population may be infected worldwide.
However, diagnosing and treating Lyme disease is difficult, especially if symptoms persist after treatment.
According to Fallon, a subset of patients may develop debilitating disease, raising questions about the factors that influence recovery and why some people experience prolonged symptoms and others do not.
Treatment for chronic Lyme disease, which lasts more than six months, is a matter of debate. Antibiotics are a common treatment, but herbal remedies are also being considered.
Lambert maintains that antibiotics are the most effective treatment for Lyme disease, although research into other methods is still ongoing.
(with influence from the BBC)
2024-08-04 20:11:25
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