Thursday 11 November 2010

How many people have Chronic Lyme Disease ?

This article mentions how people with Lyme disease tend to find each other for support and encouragement.This has proved to be the case with me.

Since so little is known of Lyme disease in South Africa, I have no one to talk to about it, but I have made some wonderful friends on Facebook who are also diagnosed with the illness and it's co-infections.  They are a source of great support and inspiration.

Twenty new strains of the spirochete Borellia burgdorferi had been collected from the heart to of Lyme territory.  However, only 24 can leave the skin to infect the body, so this means that there are 6 strains that cause the EM rash but do not cause "Lyme Disease" per se.

The CDC report that early diagnosis can be made by recognizing the characteristic Lyme disease rash called erythema migrans, which often takes on a bull's-eye appearance, however I have been diagnosed with Lyme disease and it's co-infections and on neither of the occasions that I experienced Tick Bite Fever did I show this  tell tale rash.