Lyme disease / chronic Lyme disease / post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome (PTLDS)

A vector-borne (results from an infection transmitted to humans and other animals by blood-feeding arthropods such as mosquitoes, ticks, and fleas) disease characterized by four specific species of bacteria, including Borrelia burgdorferi, Borrelia mayonii, Borrelia afzelii, and Borrelia garinii. The most common way for the condition to be transmitted is via the bite of infected black-legged ticks (deer ticks).

Fever, chills, headache, fatigue, muscle and joint aches, swollen lymph nodes, erythema morgans rash, neck stiffness, facial palsy, arthritis, intermittent pain in tendons, muscles, joints, and bones, heart palpitations and irregular heartbeat, dizziness, shortness of breath, episodes of dizziness or shortness of breath, brain or spinal cord inflammation, nerve pain, numbness/tingling in the hands/feet, neurological issues, eye inflammation, and liver inflammation.

Lyme carditis, Bell’s palsy, meningitis, hepatitis, babesia, bartonella, rickettsia, ehrlichia and anaplasma.

Those who live near or spend time in grassy/heavily wooded areas where ticks exist are at higher risk of contracting Lyme disease, particularly if they have exposed skin. Ticks must be removed promptly (within 36 hours) to remove the likelihood that the bacteria will enter the bloodstream and cause illness.