Lyme disease - primary

Injury	Disease	Nutrition	Poison

Symptoms	Surgery	Test	Special Topic

Lyme disease, erythema chronicum migrans

Lyme disease organism, Borrelia burgdorferi

Deer ticks

Ticks

Lyme disease - Borrelia burgdorferi organism

Lyme disease

Tick imbedded in the skin

Overview

Symptoms

Treatment

Prevention

Lyme disease - primary

Alternative Names:

Early localized Lyme infection; Lyme borreliosis; Stage 1 Lyme disease

Symptoms:

Deer ticks can be so small that they are almost impossible to see. Therefore, many people with Lyme disease never even saw a tick. These people are more likely to develop symptoms because the tick remained on their body longer.

The symptoms of Lyme disease include:

a flat or slightly raised red lesion at the site of the tick bite
expansion of the red lesion (rash) to several inches over several days. The rash usually will clear in the center and resemble a bull's eye
fever
headache
lethargy
muscle pains and aches
joint aches
swollen glands, either near the rash or all over the body

Signs and tests:

An ELISA or Western blot may show antibodies to Borrelia burgdorferi. This test is usually not positive in the first few weeks after the tick bite, so it is often not accurate early in the disease.
A skin biopsy can sometimes identify the organism.

Review Date: 6/15/2005
Reviewed By: Monica Gandhi, MD, MPH, Assistant Professor, Division of Infectious Diseases, UCSF, Sanf Francisco, CA. Review provided by VeriMed Healthcare Network.

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