Lyme Disease: Borrelia Burgdorferi

555 Words2 Pages

Lyme disease is a disease cause by the bacteria known as Borrelia burgdorferi. Animals that live in grassy areas or wood like areas, such as forest, is the common place to find this bacteria Borrelia burgdorferi. Borrelia burgdorferi is commonly found on small animals like mice up to animals as big as deer. How this bacterium is transmitted to humans is through a bite by a tick. The specific ticks that are exposed to this disease and transmit it to humans by a single bite are known as Ixodes ticks (blacklegged ticks or deer ticks). These Ixodes ticks are small in size and do not get any bigger than sesame seed. The bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi was recognized around the 1970’s in Lyme, Connecticut. This is the reason for the bacteria’s name. The outbreak was during the summer till early fall. B.burgdorferi was discovered again in 1982 by some laboratory work done by Willy Burgdorfer. This disease has increased over the years dramatically, and has become a public health problem in areas around the Northeast, Northwest, and Northern Midwest states.
There are a good amount of symptoms...

More about Lyme Disease: Borrelia Burgdorferi

Open Document