Lyme Disease Outbreak

1. Lyme Disease Outbreak By Patricia Kelley

2. Where? Old Lyme, Connecticut

3. How? • * In a one year period, fifty-one people were experiencing uncommon juvenile rheumatoid arthritus symptoms which include; swollen or stiff joints, rashes and high fever. • * By 1977, scientists linked to the Icodes scapularis (black-legged or deer) tick as the transmitter of the disease and by 1982, the bacterium, Borrelia burgdorferi, was discovered as the culprit.

4. How? • Causes • * Environmental changes in the Connecticut area are blamed for the advanced spread of Lyme Disease. • o As Connecticut more industrialized, old agricultural farms were turned into new forests and a new habitat for deer. • + Also, as the population in Connecticut increased, so did the human to deer contact. • *Ticks can also move from pets to people*

5. Treatments? • * Federal funding for Lyme disease research began in 1991, and by 1997 a vaccine became available. Though by 2001, the vaccine was taken off the market • * Symptoms can be eliminated with antibiotics, but only if the disease is caught early.

6. Untreated Lyme Disease… • o If the disease is left untreated, it results in a multitude of problems such as neurological disorders (twitching) and neuropsychiatric disturbances (memory loss, mood sings, sleeping problems) • * The late-stage Lyme disease is often called the "great imitator" because it is has so many multi-faceted symptoms that it is commonly misdiagnosed as Multiple sclerosis, chronic fatigue syndrome, rhematoid arthritus and other autoimmune and neurodegenerative diseases.