Costs
The costs of typical Lyme disease tests are very high in most cases. However, as Lyme disease is a potentially dangerous infectious disease, the costs of a test are fully covered by both statutory and private health insurance companies. Only the costs for those test procedures which detect Borrelia directly in the tick have to be paid by the patient. However, a suitable test can already be purchased at a price of about 20 to 30 Euros.
Online
In many cases a first suspicion of the presence of borreliosis can be raised even without extensive testing in the laboratory. For this purpose various self-tests are offered online. These tests usually only require the assessment of the typical symptoms of Lyme disease.
Persons who suspect that they suffer from Lyme disease can use such a test online to evaluate whether the symptoms present are typical for the infectious disease. A Borrelia infection already shows itself a few days after the tick bite by an extensive reddening of the skin in the area of the bite site (so-called erythema chronicum migrans). The reddening of the skin, which is typical for the presence of Lyme disease, is sharply limited and does not itch or hurt.
In addition, the affected patients develop flu-like symptoms such as fever, fatigue, headaches and aching limbs within the first few weeks. In addition, swelling of the lymph nodes and inflammatory processes in the area of the conjunctiva can be detected in many affected patients. Only several weeks after the infection does the nervous system become impaired with the corresponding symptoms.
The Lyme disease tests, which can be performed online, usually ask for back pain, paralysis and neurological deficits in this context. Especially the mimic facial nerve (nervus facialis) is affected early in a Borrelia infection. In the third stage of the disease, the bacterial pathogens also spread to the brain and spinal cord.
Affected patients can therefore develop pronounced paralysis symptoms (so-called paraplegia symptoms). Joint inflammations are also not uncommon in the third stage of Lyme disease.
