Medical Symptoms and Facts

Do You Know the First Symptoms of Lyme Disease?

The first cases of lyme disease were recorded in Lyme, Connecticut as well as the two nearby towns in the year 1975. Researchers studied the unusual great numbers of children who were detected with immature rheumatoid arthritis. It was discovered that the most children who were affected with the disease were living in close proximity to harbored ticks and wooden areas. The experts found out that the first symptoms of lyme disease began during the summer season corresponding with the tick season. Some of the first symptoms of lyme disease include having skin rashes before the development of arthritis. Most of the children who are having the first symptoms of lyme disease are said to be bitten by ticks.

Advance studies discovered that a certain tiny deer tick that is contaminated with spirochete or a spiral-shaped bacterium called Borrelia burgdorferi is responsible for the arthritis outbreak in Lyme.

Most people may experience having red rashes or erythema migrans as one of the first symptoms of lyme disease. These red rashes starts as small spots and expands in several days and weeks. Other symptoms of lyme disease are headache, fever, body aches, fatigue and stiff neck.

After a few months of having red rashes, people who are not given antibiotics for treatment may develop frequent attacks of swollen and painful joints that may last for several days to several months. The arthritis can transfer from one joint to another joint, mostly in the knees.

Lyme disease can affect your nervous system, which can cause other symptoms such as meningitis or severe headache and stiff neck, weakness or pain in the limbs, numbness, poor motor skills and Bell’s palsy. Bell’s palsy is the condition wherein facial muscles suffer temporary paralysis.