Lime Disease Essay example -- essays research papers

Lime DiseaseLyme indisposition is caused by Borrelia burgdorferi, which is a tick-borne spirochete. The dangers of this disease became more publicised in 1977, where a geographic class of children in Lyme, Conneticut were thought to sire juvenile rheumatoidarthritis1. Soon after, it was sight that lyme disease was an illness that mainlyaffects the skin, nervous system, heart, and joints. The borrelia species is part of theeubacterial phylum of spirochetes. Containted within a protoplasmic cylinder is a cellmembrane, followed by wavy flagella, and then an outmost(a) membrane. The genesencoded within the outer membrane are located on plasmids which allows the organismto 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 topatching1. B. burgdorferi do not live in water, soil, or plants. Borrelia grow slowlycompared to most bacteria. They elongate for 12 to 24 hours be fore dividing into twocells. B. burgdorferi is approximately 20 to um long and 0.2 to 0.25 um wide, with 7 to11 flagella. More than 30 proteins are contained within B. burgdorferi1. This bacteriauses white-footed mice, mosquitoes, and deer as their hosts. This disease does not discriminate betwixt sex and age manful and female, aswell as old and young are affected. It is widely distributed around the world in thetemperate zones3. A person is infected when a black-legged tick imbeds itself intothem while out in the open in wodded and forested areas. This usually occurs amongstthe months of May and July. Tick abundance is associated with humidity, temperature, adorn slope, forested areas with sandy soils, and the extremity of residentialdevelopment?.Generally, lyme disease occurs in awards, which are not always clear-cut theymay overlap. The first stage involves the injection of B. burgdorferi by the tick. Shortlythereafter (3 days to 4 months), it spreads passim the skin, ca us e erythemamigrans (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 thedisease, yet may also be absent altogether. EM resolves spontaneously in a fewweeks or months4. Also like to occu... ...itive skills inchildren who have been treated for lyme disease using antibiotics. It seems likely thatthe lyme disease spirochete can cause an adverse fetal outcome. However, thequestion is, how likely and just what are the outcomes, which is what I would like to testifyfor. My proposed study will be an experimental study in which lyme disease treatedpediatric populations will be examined to identify possible cognitive or psychologicabnormalities resulting from lyme disease. The focus will be on children because they have a high incidence of lyme disease? and are less likely to havecognitive deterioration due to confounding factors, such as aging.Children between the ages of 5 and 15 who h ave been treated with lyme diseasewill be studied. These children will be randomly chosen for endemic areas such asDelaware. Serologic testing (ie. enzyme-linked immunosorbent assa ELISA) will beused to determine the carriage of B. burgdorferi antibodies. The following hypotheses will be testedHo No cognitive differences between lyme disease children and control groupHA Cognitive differences between lyme disease children and control group arepresent.