LIME DISEASE

Lime disease (lyme disease), or borreliosis, is an infectious disease caused by spirochete bacteria from the genus Borrelia. The vector of infection is typically the bite of an infected black-legged or deer tick, but other carriers may be ticks which have been implicated. Borrelia burgdorferi is the predominant cause of Lyme disease in the US and Borrelia afzelii and Borrelia garinii are in Europe.

The disease presentation varies widely, and may include a rash and flu-like symptoms in its initial stage, then musculoskeletal, arthritic, neurologic, psychiatric and cardiac manifestations. In a majority of cases symptoms can be eliminated with the use of specific antibiotics, especially if treatment is started very early in the course of illness.

Late or inadequate treatment often leads to "late stage" Lime disease (lime disease) that is disabling and difficult to treat. Furthermore, this is comlicated by the fact that this is a very dificult disease to diagnose accurately in the early stages.