The History and Biology of Lyme Disease
In the United States it is believed, as Vanderhoof-Forscher (1997) point out, that Lyme disease was discovered in 1977 in the small town of Lyme, Connecticut; hence then naming of the disease(p.36). A woman named Polly Murray living in Old Lyme, Connecticut found that she developed rashes, headaches and swollen joints and later, she also suffered memory loss, nausea, shooting pains throughout her body along with intense fatigue. She went to major medical centers in New York and Boston but was told consistently that her illness was psychogenic.
As family members and neighbors developed the same or worse symptoms, she was more committed than ever to uncover the true cause of this strange complex of symptoms. Finally she called the Connecticut Department of Health. Her persistence eventually led to researchers Mast and Burrows to identify successful treatment of patients with antibiotics bitten by ticks as reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
The first actual recorded case of Lyme disease or condition associated with it, according to Vanderhoof-Forscher (1997) was not in America, but in Germany in 1883 (p.37).
In 1909 a Swedish physician, while at a meeting of the Swedish Society of Dermatology, presented research that can be considered ground-breaking about a ring-like, expanding lesion that he had observed. This physician was Arvid Afzelius; he published his work after 12 years and hypothesized that this particular rash was caused by the bite of an Ixodes tick. This rash is now know as an “erythema migrans” (EM) and can be considered a characteristic sign of Lyme disease as well as used as a tool for diagnosing the disease.
Vanderhoof –Forscher (1997) also tells us in 1945 researchers in Europe had published research papers in reference to very similar if not identical symptomology to that of the disease we later identified as “Lyme” (p.36).
Research continued and cases of this disease were showing up in other countries; foundations were formed to help aid in the research. According to Vanderhoof-Forscher (1997) the main “pioneers” of Lyme disease research and discovery were mainly Europeans. In America a brilliant researcher working at the Rocky Mountain Laboratories of the National Institutes of Health named Willy Burgdorfer actually discovered the spirochete named Borrelia burgdorferi (Bb) in honor of this pioneering work.
It then became unequivocally known that Lyme disease is an illness that is transmitted through the bite of a tick. Not all ticks carry Lyme disease; the most common carrier is the deer tick. This particular bacterium is shaped like a corkscrew and is called a spirochete; it is in some ways similar to the one that causes syphilis.
Lyme disease is then a multi-symptomatic illness which can and in many cases does affect the central nervous system. Individuals with Lyme disease can also be infected by other bacterial, viral, amoebic and parasitic organisms through the bite of a tick. Multiple infections can occur at the same time!
Here are some fascinating, but nightmarish facets being studied now: based on my study of the research on Lyme disease, it appears that
- Bb has the ability (within the first few weeks of initial infection) to invade the central nervous system (or CNS) via the cerebrospinal fluid (or CSF). Spirochetes can then attach to glial cell (cells in the brain that are particular to the nervous system) as well as other brain tissues. It also penetrates deep into body tissue and other body fluids, not staying in the blood.
- Amazingly, it has been shown that spirochetes have the ability to genetically alter themselves and create a new strain of spirochete.
- Another confounding factor is that once bitten, symptoms may not appear initially, for months or possibly years possibly due to a latency period possibly relating to the replication rate, and or due to the ability of the spirochete cells to be covered by a “viral cloak” which hides its identity to the fighter white blood cells!
- Lyme disease is very difficult to diagnose through laboratory testing. These blood tests are not highly reliable, although there appear to be some that are more reliable than others. The Infectious Disease Society has developed recommendations for the diagnosis and treatment of Lyme disease that are restrictive and that exclude many who are suffering from the clinical symptoms from the diagnosis; it therefore, excludes many from treatment.
- Since these organisms are so complex and not fully understood, there appears to be a high rate of results coming back as a false-negative. Bb is extremely difficult to culture; some of the “antigens” of Bb are also shared by bacteria that cause other diseases. This then adds to the problem of a clearly defined diagnosis.
In the event that blood serology comes back negative Lyme literate physicians are then drawn to look carefully at the clinical symptoms. A full evaluation is then needed, looking at the patient’s full health history, current symptoms, physical exam, neurological exam, and current mental status.
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