Lime Disease Essay example -- essays research papers

Lime Disease   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Lyme disease is caused by Borrelia burgdorferi, which is a tick-borne spirochete. The dangers of this disease became more publicised in 1977, where a geographic grouping of children in Lyme, Conneticut were thought to have juvenile rheumatoid arthritis1. Soon after, it was discovered that lyme disease was an illness that mainly affects the skin, nervous system, heart, and joints. The borrelia species is part of the eubacterial phylum of spirochetes. Containted within a protoplasmic cylinder is a cell membrane, followed by wavy flagella, and then an outer membrane. The genes encoded within the outer membrane are located on plasmids which allows the organism to make antigenic changes in these proteins. When a borrelia cell attaches to its host, the whole outer membrane moves to one end of the cylinder, which is called capping to patching1. B. burgdorferi do not live in water, soil, or plants. Borrelia grow slowly compared to most bacteria. They elongate for 12 to 24 hours before dividing into two cells. B. burgdorferi is approximately 20 to um long and 0.2 to 0.25 um wide, with 7 to 11 flagella. More than 30 proteins are contained within B. burgdorferi1. This bacteria uses white-footed mice, mosquitoes, and deer as their hosts.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  This disease does not discriminate between sex and age; male and female, as well as old and young are affected. It is widely distributed around the world in the temperate zones3. A person is infected when a black-legged tick imbeds itself into them while out in the open in wodded and forested areas. This usually occurs between the months of May and July. Tick abundance is associated with humidity, temperature, landscape slope, forested areas with sandy soils, and the extremity of residential development?.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Generally, lyme disease occurs in stages, which are not always clear-cut; they may overlap. The first stage involves the injection of B. burgdorferi by the tick. Shortly thereafter (3 days to 4 months), it spreads throughout the skin, causing erythema migrans (EM), which is basically a skin lesion. This lesion can vary in size, body site, color, duration, intensity, and recurrence. Erythema migrans is a marker of the disease, yet may also be absent altogether. EM resolves spontaneously in a few weeks or months4. Also like to occu... ...itive skills in children who have been treated for lyme disease using antibiotics. It seems likely that the lyme disease spirochete can cause an adverse fetal outcome. However, the question is, how likely and just what are the outcomes, which is what I would like to test for. My proposed study will be an experimental study in which lyme disease treated pediatric populations will be examined to identify possible cognitive or psychologic abnormalities resulting from lyme disease. The focus will be on children because they have a high incidence of lyme disease? and are less likely to have cognitive deterioration due to confounding factors, such as aging.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Children between the ages of 5 and 15 who have been treated with lyme disease will be studied. These children will be randomly chosen for endemic areas such as Delaware. Serologic testing (ie. enzyme-linked immunosorbent assa; ELISA) will be used to determine the presence of B. burgdorferi antibodies. The following hypotheses will be tested: Ho: No cognitive differences between lyme disease children and control group HA: Cognitive differences between lyme disease children and control group are present.