Borreliosis - Causes And Symptoms Of Borreliosis, Diagnosis, Treatment, Prevention

2024 Author: Josephine Shorter | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 21:43

Borreliosis

Causes and symptoms of borreliosis

What is borreliosis?

Borreliosis is a dangerous infectious disease that raises a lot of questions, unlike other infectious diseases. The reasons for this popularity are the numerous symptoms, different opinions of specialists about the diagnosis, treatment, and low awareness of people about this disease.

Borreliosis is caused by the bacterium Borrelia. Borrelia often reproduce directly in the intestines of ticks and are excreted through their feces. Infection occurs not only due to a tick bite, but also if you crush it with your fingers on a person's skin. Summer is especially dangerous for such an infection, when a special ixodid tick becomes active.

Borreliosis causes

The causes of tick-borne borreliosis are bacteria - spirochetes, which are thin and elongated cells twisted in a spiral. Borreliosis is an infectious disease in which the causative agent of the disease enters the human body as a result of a bite by an infected tick. The disease usually begins about 7-14 days after the actual bite. In this case, there is a strong damage to the skin, central nervous system, heart and blood vessels, as well as the musculoskeletal system.

The disease can be transmitted directly through the bite of an infected tick, as well as when tick feces come into contact with the skin and rubbed into the affected skin while scratching. You can also become infected if the tick is damaged when it is removed, when part of the insect remains in the wound. In nature, ticks can infect animals that become carriers of the infection. Therefore, to prevent and prevent infection from domestic animals, milk should be boiled.

The period from late spring to early autumn is especially dangerous for infection. During this period, such mites are especially active. It is worth remembering that a patient infected with a tick is not contagious to other people around him.

Borreliosis symptoms

The site of the bite turns red quite noticeably, the speck increases significantly over time, becomes bright red, there is swelling in the affected area. The size of redness ranges in diameter from 1 to 60 cm. The bite site often itches, hurts, swells, there is a significant increase in temperature, contraction, and sensitivity is impaired. Sometimes there is a complete absence of a skin reaction typical for borreliosis.

Intoxication of the body usually manifests itself in headache, weakness, fever, wave-like pain in muscle tissue, and joint aches. A dry cough appears, a sore throat, enlarged lymph nodes near the affected area. The victim may experience nausea and vomiting. With these symptoms, in most cases, complete recovery is likely with the right antibiotic treatment.

If treatment is not started on time, then the second dangerous stage of the disease often occurs. After a while (from 2-3 weeks to several months), the infection enters the bloodstream and enters various organs. One of the consequences of the second stage of the disease is damage to the central nervous system, namely: sensitivity is impaired, reflexes are lost, voluntary movements (running, walking, various movements that regulate the brain) weaken.

Also, complications of the second stage can cause meningitis, a serious disruption in the functioning of the nerve cells in the brain. For example, the perception of light, sound, as well as the sense of smell and touch, change greatly. It can be difficult to chew, swallow, fainting is observed, it is impossible to turn the head, sleep is disturbed, it is impossible to concentrate on anything.

Borreliosis also negatively affects the cardiovascular system, manifesting itself in a violation of the heart rhythm, conduction inside the ventricle, and pain. Muscle pains, pains in bones, tendons are observed, rather large red spots appear on the body, called erythema with a pronounced bright edge and a very pale swollen center. These symptoms appear over several weeks, some may recur.

After about 3-6 months (sometimes up to one year), when two stages of the disease pass, the stage of chronic infection sets in, in which a specific organ or the whole system is affected. With damage to the central nervous system, there is increased fatigue, increased excitability, or vice versa, depression.

With the defeat of the musculoskeletal system, there is a change in gait, the development of multiple inflammation of the joints (polyarthritis), a change in muscle tone. When the skin is damaged, dermatitis, the appearance of seals and, as a result, atrophic acrodermatitis are observed. This disease is chronic, always protracted, with a series of exacerbations and remissions. The incubation period is on average 1.5-2 weeks.

Diagnostics of the borreliosis

Initially, an analysis of the victim's condition is carried out, the fact of a tick bite or stay in a forest park zone during their activity is established. Then the complaints and symptoms of the patient are analyzed, the timing of the appearance of the headache, typical redness at the site of the bite are established.

It is possible to diagnose this form of the disease exclusively by laboratory means, carrying out a number of necessary modern tests to identify the bacteria Borrelia. A referral to an infectious disease specialist for a consultation is possible. Not all ticks are infected, therefore, when bitten, you should immediately contact a specialist to carefully remove the tick and check it for infection.

Borreliosis treatment

If the course of the disease is mild (no intoxication, fever), home treatment is possible. Such patients are prescribed antibiotics, such as tetracycline. Everyone who has been bitten by ticks is followed up for two years in a dispensary by an infectious disease specialist. If necessary, a consultation with a rheumatologist, cardiologist, neuropathologist is appointed.

Particular attention is paid to pregnant women who have been bitten by ticks. Since there are no means of special prevention in the early stages, the issue of maintaining a particular pregnancy is always decided on an individual basis. Severely ill patients with complications according to clinical indications (rheumatology, neuralgia, cardiology) are sent to the hospital.

Antibacterial drugs (ceftriaxone or penicillins) are prescribed so that the patient recovers faster and so that the disease does not go into a serious chronic stage. In the case of an advanced disease, analgesics, certain anti-inflammatory drugs are used, and physiotherapy is also prescribed to alleviate the patient's condition and well-being.

During the course of treatment, the patient is prescribed fortifying agents, a group of natural or chemical preparations that increase the body's resistance to harmful effects, as well as vitamins A, B, C. The treatment lasts depending on the stage of the disease: from two weeks to several months. A person who has recovered is under the supervision of specialists for about 2 more years in order to determine the final diagnosis: either the patient's complete recovery or the transition of this disease into a chronic form.

Complications are a severe form of damage to the central nervous system (inflammation of the spinal cord and brain, paralysis, memory disorder, loss of functions of behavior, thinking, impaired coordination of movements), inflammation of the membranes of the heart, the iris of the eye, the development of dementia, paralysis of peripheral nerves, severe cardiac arrhythmia, partial or complete loss of vision and hearing, multiple arthritis.

A benign skin tumor may develop in the area of the bite. There have been cases when, due to damage to the central nervous system and lesions of the joints, the patient became disabled. It must be remembered that for any tick bite, you should not engage in any self-medication, you must immediately contact the appropriate medical institution.

Prevention of borreliosis

Do not forget about the prevention of borreliosis. When walking in the woods, parks, or going to the country house, you should wear long sleeves, tuck your trousers into your boots and be sure to wear a hat. Today there is a large selection of all kinds of ointments, aerosols and insect repellants. It is worth using them. Shrubs and tall grass are favorite spots for mites, so you should stay away from them.

If the tick is well attached to the skin, you should carefully remove it with tweezers without damaging it. It must be removed by unscrewing it by the head. In no case should the tick be dragged vertically or pressed. After the tick is removed, the wound should be cleaned and hands should be washed with soap and water.

Returning from the forest, you must carefully examine yourself, and also ask another person to examine yourself, especially in the area of the scalp, the folds of our body. If the fact of a bite by an infected tick is established, then emergency prevention is carried out with the help of antibacterial drugs.

There is no vaccine to prevent borreliosis. The best prevention is to protect yourself from a tick bite with simple personal protective measures. It is also worth paying attention to the rapid removal of the tick that has sucked, since Borrelia are in the intestine of the tick and do not immediately enter the bloodstream. The more time the tick is in the human body, the higher the probability of infection and infection in the blood.

For the prevention of borreliosis in the first days after the bite, antibiotics are used, but this is not a guarantee of complete protection. They can reduce the risk of infection, but specialists should be consulted for prescribing drugs and conducting a full examination, as well as to identify the disease at an early stage and prevent complications at a later stage.

Article author: Mochalov Pavel Alexandrovich | d. m. n. therapist

Education: Moscow Medical Institute. IM Sechenov, specialty - "General Medicine" in 1991, in 1993 "Occupational Diseases", in 1996 "Therapy".