Some people develop a bull’s eye-like rash, called Erythra migrans, after being bitten by a tick
Lyme Disease is caused by Borrelia burgdorferi- a corkscrew-shaped bacterium – that consists of more than 20 sub-species, five of which can cause disease in humans.
Borrelia can flourish inside a tick, where they migrate from the gut to the saliva glands.
When the tick takes blood from humans, the bacteria can penetrate our skin and travel around our body in our bloodstream.
It mutates in a number of ways to become invisible to the host’s immune system – so a patient becomes infected with it.
The main way the bacteria is transmitted in Europe is the deer tick, Ixodes ricinus – but other species of the same tick carry the microbes in the US and Asia.
However, as Ixodes ticks can also transmit other bacteria and viruses, it can be hard to diagnose Lyme disease.
Lice, fleas, and mosquitoes have also been found to contain Borrelia.
Some people develop a bull’s eye-like rash, called Erythra migrans, after being bitten by a tick.
It normally appears between three and 30 days after infection.
As infection spreads, Borrealia can also affect the skin in other areas; the nervous system; the joints or the heart.
Some patients, about 10-20 per cent, can develop a debilitating chronic condition called post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome.
They suffer symptoms including arthritis, fatigue, muscle pain and minor cognitive impairments such as headaches and sleep disturbances.