Borrelia are bacteria and originate in rodents. They are transmitted to other animals and humans by ticks. The pathogens can cause Lyme disease. Different species of Borrelia exist worldwide.
What are borrelia bacteria?
A tick bite or tick bite can transmit various diseases into the host organism. The best known of these is Lyme disease. Borrelia are helical bacteria and belong to the group of spirochetes. They develop in rats and mice. They are transmitted to various living creatures by ticks as disease vectors. Many animals are immune to Borrelia, while for example horses, dogs, but especially humans are not. The disease symptoms transmitted by Borrelia have been known for a long time, but the pathogens were only discovered a little more than 20 years ago. There are different species: Borrelia burgdorferi, Borrelia afzelii and Borrelia garinii. In Europe, mainly the last two species are present, while in the United States, Borrelia burgdorferi is present.
Significance and diseases
In Central Europe, it is primarily the so-called Lyme borreliosis that is transmitted to humans by the common wood tick (Ixodes ricinus). The animals stay in the grass or in the foliage and settle on the legs when walking through. They then look for a suitable place to suck. A tick bite can transmit the pathogens of Lyme disease, but also viruses of early summer meningoencephalitis (FSME). Diagnosis of Lyme disease is very difficult, as it can take days to weeks from infection to onset. Lyme arthritis sometimes takes as long as years. The ticks are then often no longer associated with the symptoms. Borrelia live in the tick’s intestine. It can take up to three days for them to enter the human bloodstream through the bite of the tick. The animal must first be fully aspirated and then vomit, so to speak. At this point, an adult tick begins to pump tissue fluid and water that is unusable for it back into the human body. Only with this process is transmission possible. If the tick is discovered and removed within 24 hours, infection with Borrelia is low. If a person falls ill with Lyme disease he is not contagious for others. The disease progresses in several stages. Each affected person develops his or her own medical history, because phases are sometimes omitted and individual clinical pictures can appear in varying degrees of severity. Reaction periods lasting for years are also possible. Lyme disease is treated with antibiotics, one can not vaccinate against it at present.
Course of disease
Lyme borelliosis is divided into three stages. After a short time, redness may appear around the sting site. It clearly demarcates and is circular in shape. This appearance is called wandering redness. It is a sure sign that an infection has occurred. Affected individuals feel sick, similar to the flu, have elevated temperature, headache, aching limbs, and great fatigue. The spleen and liver may enlarge. After up to ten weeks, the pathogen spreads via the blood or lymph channels. Fatigue, night sweats, fever, joint and muscle pain may occur, rarely also weight loss. During this phase, occasional hair loss, dizzy spells, difficulty concentrating and extreme fatigue are also frequently observed. Characteristic, however, are the unusually strong sweats at night and moments with rapid, strong pulse. These situations cause very unpleasant sensations. Occasionally, the wandering redness is observed in several parts of the body. In this phase, paralysis of the face may also occur, also inflammation of the conjunctiva, and eye skin, and pupils, and inflammation of the entire eyeball. Cardiac arrhythmias and inflammation of the pericardium, which can cause chest pain, are the case in about eight percent of those affected. In the third stage of the disease, typical thinning and wrinkling of the skin and inflammation of the entire nervous system may occur. This course, if left untreated, can last for years, even decades. Characteristic for Lyme arthritis is that in the course again and again the symptoms subside and disappear. It is also typical that the inflammation occurs only in some joints, associated with extremely painful swellings. The knee joints are most frequently affected.
