Excerpted from Healthline: (06/11/2019)
Can you catch Lyme disease from someone else? The short answer is no. There’s no direct evidence that Lyme disease is contagious. The exception is pregnant women, who can transmit it to their fetus.
Lyme disease is a systemic infection caused by spirochete bacteria transmitted by black-legged deer ticks. The corkscrew-shaped bacteria, Borrelia burgdorferi, are similar to the spirochete bacteria that cause syphilis.
Lyme disease can become debilitating for some people and life-threatening if it isn’t treated.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)Trusted Source estimates that 300,000 people in the United States are diagnosed with Lyme each year. But many cases may go unreported. Other studies suggest that the incidence of Lyme may be as high as 1 million cases per year.
Diagnosis is challenging because Lyme symptoms mimic those of many other diseases.
Historical facts about Lyme
Lyme takes its name from the Connecticut town where several children developed what looked like rheumatoid arthritis in the 1970s. The culprit was thought to be a tick bite.
In 1982, scientist Willy Burgdorfer identified the bacterial causeTrusted Source of the illness. The tick-borne bacteria, Borrelia burgdorferi, is named after him.
Lyme isn’t a new disease. Lyme-type spirochetes were found in the Tyrolean IcemanTrusted Source, a 5,300-year-old well-preserved body discovered in the Alps in 1991.
What’s the most common way to get Lyme?
Blacklegged deer ticks infected with Borrelia burgdorferi transmit the Lyme bacteria when they bite. The ticks, Ixodes scapularis (Ixodes pacificus on the West Coast), can also transmit other disease-causing bacteria, viruses, and parasites. These are called coinfections.
A tick requires a blood meal at each stage of its life — as larvae, nymphs, and adults. Ticks normally feed on animals, ground-feeding birds, or reptiles. Humans are a secondary blood source.tick
Most bites to humans are from tick nymphs, which are the size of poppy seeds. It’s hard to spot them, even on open skin. The prime seasons for human tick bites are late spring and summer.
As an infected tick feeds on you, it injects spirochetes into your blood. Animal researchTrusted Source has shown that the severity (virulence) of infection varies, depending on whether the spirochetes are from the tick’s salivary glands or the tick’s midgut. In this animal research, infection required 14 times more midgut spirochetes than saliva spirochetes.
Depending on the tick’s bacterial virulence, you could be infected with Lyme within 24 hoursTrusted Source of the tick bite.
Can you get Lyme from bodily fluids?
Lyme bacteria may be found in bodily fluids, such as:
saliva
urine
breast milk
But there’s no hard evidence that Lyme spreads from person to person via contact with bodily fluids. So don’t worry about kissing someone with Lyme.
Can you get Lyme from sexual transmission?
There’s no direct evidence that Lyme is sexually transmitted by humans. Lyme experts are divided about the possibility.
“The evidence for sexual transmission that I’ve seen is very weak and certainly not conclusive in any scientific sense,” Dr. Elizabeth Maloney told Healthline. Maloney is president of the Partnership for Tick-Borne Diseases Education.
Dr. Sam Donta, another Lyme researcher, agreed.
On the other hand, Lyme researcher Dr. Raphael Stricker told Healthline, “There’s no reason why the Lyme spirochete can’t be sexually transmitted by human beings. How commonly it occurs, or how difficult it is, we don’t know.”
Stricker has called for a “Manhattan Project” approach to Lyme, including more research.
Indirect studies of human transmission are suggestiveTrusted Source, but not definitive. A few animal studies of sexual transmission of the Lyme spirochete have shown that it does occur in some cases.
It’s not ethical to test sexual transmission by deliberately infecting humans, as was done with syphilis in the past. (The syphilis spirochete is transmitted sexually.)
A 2014 studyTrusted Source found live Lyme spirochetes in semen and vaginal secretions of people with documented Lyme. But this doesn’t necessarily mean there are enough spirochetes to spread infection.
Can you get Lyme from a blood transfusion?
There are no documented cases of Lyme transmission via a blood transfusion.
But the Lyme spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi has been isolated from human blood, and an older 1990 research studyTrusted Source found that Lyme spirochetes could survive the normal blood bank storage procedures. For this reason, the CDCTrusted Source recommends that people being treated for Lyme shouldn’t donate blood.
On the other hand, there have been more than 30 cases of transfusion-transmitted babesiosis, a parasite coinfection of the same black-legged tick that transmits Lyme.
Can Lyme be transmitted during pregnancy?
A pregnant woman with untreated Lyme can transmit the infectionTrusted Source to the fetus. But if they receive adequate treatment for Lyme, adverse effects are unlikely.
A 2009 studyTrusted Source of 66 pregnant women found that untreated women had a significantly higher risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes.
For more: https://www.healthline.com/health/is-lyme-disease-contagious
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~ by Rob on June 16, 2019.
Posted in babesiosis, CDC, IDSA, Lyme
Tags: alaska, Borrelia burgdoferi, Commentary, Lyme, Lyme Disease, ticks
Lyme Handbook 
Lyme Disease Transmission: Can It Spread from Person to Person?
Excerpted from Healthline: (06/11/2019)
Can you catch Lyme disease from someone else? The short answer is no. There’s no direct evidence that Lyme disease is contagious. The exception is pregnant women, who can transmit it to their fetus.
Lyme disease is a systemic infection caused by spirochete bacteria transmitted by black-legged deer ticks. The corkscrew-shaped bacteria, Borrelia burgdorferi, are similar to the spirochete bacteria that cause syphilis.
Lyme disease can become debilitating for some people and life-threatening if it isn’t treated.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)Trusted Source estimates that 300,000 people in the United States are diagnosed with Lyme each year. But many cases may go unreported. Other studies suggest that the incidence of Lyme may be as high as 1 million cases per year.
Diagnosis is challenging because Lyme symptoms mimic those of many other diseases.
Historical facts about Lyme
Lyme takes its name from the Connecticut town where several children developed what looked like rheumatoid arthritis in the 1970s. The culprit was thought to be a tick bite.
In 1982, scientist Willy Burgdorfer identified the bacterial causeTrusted Source of the illness. The tick-borne bacteria, Borrelia burgdorferi, is named after him.
Lyme isn’t a new disease. Lyme-type spirochetes were found in the Tyrolean IcemanTrusted Source, a 5,300-year-old well-preserved body discovered in the Alps in 1991.
What’s the most common way to get Lyme?
Blacklegged deer ticks infected with Borrelia burgdorferi transmit the Lyme bacteria when they bite. The ticks, Ixodes scapularis (Ixodes pacificus on the West Coast), can also transmit other disease-causing bacteria, viruses, and parasites. These are called coinfections.
A tick requires a blood meal at each stage of its life — as larvae, nymphs, and adults. Ticks normally feed on animals, ground-feeding birds, or reptiles. Humans are a secondary blood source.tick
Most bites to humans are from tick nymphs, which are the size of poppy seeds. It’s hard to spot them, even on open skin. The prime seasons for human tick bites are late spring and summer.
As an infected tick feeds on you, it injects spirochetes into your blood. Animal researchTrusted Source has shown that the severity (virulence) of infection varies, depending on whether the spirochetes are from the tick’s salivary glands or the tick’s midgut. In this animal research, infection required 14 times more midgut spirochetes than saliva spirochetes.
Depending on the tick’s bacterial virulence, you could be infected with Lyme within 24 hoursTrusted Source of the tick bite.
Can you get Lyme from bodily fluids?
Lyme bacteria may be found in bodily fluids, such as:
saliva
urine
breast milk
But there’s no hard evidence that Lyme spreads from person to person via contact with bodily fluids. So don’t worry about kissing someone with Lyme.
Can you get Lyme from sexual transmission?
There’s no direct evidence that Lyme is sexually transmitted by humans. Lyme experts are divided about the possibility.
“The evidence for sexual transmission that I’ve seen is very weak and certainly not conclusive in any scientific sense,” Dr. Elizabeth Maloney told Healthline. Maloney is president of the Partnership for Tick-Borne Diseases Education.
Dr. Sam Donta, another Lyme researcher, agreed.
On the other hand, Lyme researcher Dr. Raphael Stricker told Healthline, “There’s no reason why the Lyme spirochete can’t be sexually transmitted by human beings. How commonly it occurs, or how difficult it is, we don’t know.”
Stricker has called for a “Manhattan Project” approach to Lyme, including more research.
Indirect studies of human transmission are suggestiveTrusted Source, but not definitive. A few animal studies of sexual transmission of the Lyme spirochete have shown that it does occur in some cases.
It’s not ethical to test sexual transmission by deliberately infecting humans, as was done with syphilis in the past. (The syphilis spirochete is transmitted sexually.)
A 2014 studyTrusted Source found live Lyme spirochetes in semen and vaginal secretions of people with documented Lyme. But this doesn’t necessarily mean there are enough spirochetes to spread infection.
Can you get Lyme from a blood transfusion?
There are no documented cases of Lyme transmission via a blood transfusion.
But the Lyme spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi has been isolated from human blood, and an older 1990 research studyTrusted Source found that Lyme spirochetes could survive the normal blood bank storage procedures. For this reason, the CDCTrusted Source recommends that people being treated for Lyme shouldn’t donate blood.
On the other hand, there have been more than 30 cases of transfusion-transmitted babesiosis, a parasite coinfection of the same black-legged tick that transmits Lyme.
Can Lyme be transmitted during pregnancy?
A pregnant woman with untreated Lyme can transmit the infectionTrusted Source to the fetus. But if they receive adequate treatment for Lyme, adverse effects are unlikely.
A 2009 studyTrusted Source of 66 pregnant women found that untreated women had a significantly higher risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes.
For more: https://www.healthline.com/health/is-lyme-disease-contagious
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Like this:
Related
~ by Rob on June 16, 2019.
Posted in babesiosis, CDC, IDSA, Lyme
Tags: alaska, Borrelia burgdoferi, Commentary, Lyme, Lyme Disease, ticks