Lyme Disease

Essay by PaperNerd ContributorCollege, Undergraduate July 2001

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Lyme disease is a bacterial infection. It is sometimes called Lyme borreliosis.

Lyme disease was named for the place in which it first appeared in the United States in Lyme, Connecticut. People get Lyme disease when a diseased tick bites into a human and not an animal. The disease is usually popular between June and September when the tick is most active and when many people are spending a lot of time out doors.

The disease first started in Lyme, Connecticut, in October 1975. People reported to their doctors that there was a rash on their hands and they were in a lot of pain. Most of the children that reported to their doctors complained about arthritis symptoms. The doctors said that they were being diagnosed with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. At first, the doctors thought that the illness was just an unrecognized disease with regular symptoms so they called it "Lyme arthritis."�

The doctors reported this to the Connecticut State Health Department. They quickly sent people to investigate this disease. These people went to Lyme, Connecticut and they researched that thirty-nine children had juvenile rheumatoid arthritis in that area and that was very out of the ordinary. These investigators decided that they would need to really study this situation. When children get this disease, it destroys their future. The suffering and exhaustion lasts a lifetime. Many adults also got this disease so they wanted to find out what it really was. The scientists saw a very strange pattern that all the victims of this disease lived in heavily wooded areas.

After some research was done, the facts indicated that this disease was no ordinary form of rheumatoid arthritis. They also found out that this disease was not contagious and that the disease seemed to come during the summer months.