Lyme disease is the fastest growing infectious disease in the USA. It is caused by the bite of the tick that is infected with the bacteria Borrelia burgdorferi. This virus is helix or spiral shaped and is very versatile which make it very difficult to treat. The deer tick that cause the lyme disease often called the black legged tick. For the last past two decades, lyme infected population has been increased, and experts believe that climate change is one of the main culprit because it is providing suitable environmental condition for the tick habitat to grow and expand. The first case of lyme disease was found in Colorado and ticks were found in only in the east region in USA, but now the ticks are found in all fifty states in America.
The tick has three stages in life : larvae, nymph and adult. It has two years of life span.Ticks need to feed on the blood of three animals to complete their life cyle. Rick Ostfelt, an ecologist at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, N.Y. “We know that climate change has contributed to Lyme disease spreading northward and to higher elevations.” He further explained that the cold blooded bugs can only move and look for a meal when the weather is warmer, so when it is near freezing point it is very difficult to thrive. If they find their yummy warm meal before finishing up the reserve, they will die sooner. Now we see the early blooming and leafing before even the spring start. As the spring is coming earlier now and the summer is getting longer, it is much easier for the tick to creep on northward to find the animal to latch on for the blood.
The tick usually latches on its meal for 36 hours and it takes time to transfer the Borellia bacteria from their gut to saliva, so it is very important to check and look for the tick in the body when a person goes hiking, camping or the heavily infested tick area. The circular bull’s eye rash, along with the fever, chills are the classic symptoms of the infection. But this rash is not seen in everyone who is infected. It is usually treated with the first line antibiotics and the duration of the treatment depends on the symptoms and its severity. If left untreated it usually cause further severe symptoms like meningitis and many form of disabilities. This disease is one of the most under reported disease because the sign and symptoms of the lyme disease mimic other diseases. Lyme disease often is mistaken for fibromyalgia, multiple sclerosis, arthritis or even with alzheimer. Dr. Pal, a researcher in the University of Maryland mentioned the importance of diagnosing and treating lyme disease as soon as it gets diagnosed. Recently he discovered a protein marker, that will identify the lyme infection in the body. He also found that even if the immune system responds perfectly, the bacteria can spring back in the body weeks later. He also explained if the bacteria is not destroyed by our first wave of immunity, our adaptive immunity actually will overreact so strongly that it will cause inflammation in all joints and areas ( heart and nervous system) where the bacteria invaded.
According to the Centers for Disease Control CDC, 300,000 people are getting infected with lyme disease annually. There is no specific treatment regimen or vaccine for lyme disease in the market currently. A vaccine, called lymerix, was withdrawn from the market in 2002. Many people now are conscious about human activity on climate change. Climate change is a threat to public health in every aspect, from the vector born disease to environment pollution. We cannot stop climate change, but as people we are capable to slow down the global warming process, which will certainly help to minimize the spread of these tick-borne disease. Hopefully we will have an effective vaccine for lyme disease soon, which will make us less worried when we will go hiking and camping in the summer in thewoods.
Sources
https://www.lymedisease.org/news-blogs/news/
Mollys Blog #4
Making your Buisness Green
There are plenty of ways to turn your economically unfriendly business around. A lot of people think that it might be way more expensive to do things the eco friendly way, but it reality a lot of the eco friendly changes are super cost effective $$$! Who doesn’t love saving money?!
The first way is purchasing less paper products. A few good ways to accomplish this would be to post a few flyers instead of giving every person in the business individual flyers. An ever more eco friendly solution would be to e-mail, or post on a company wide blog, about what’s going on in the company and what everyone needs to know, including but not limited to important dates and important company events.
Another way to make your business eco friendly would be to purchase re-usable products for the entire company. White boards are a great idea. Less printing things is also a great way to help save on using paper. Use recycled paper if you have to use paper!
Installing water fountains is another great ways to help become more eco-friendly. Instead of everyone bringing plastic water bottles and throwing them away in regular trashcans, make re-usable water bottles their only option and they have to refill them in the company mandated water fountains. And if they do decide to bring non-reusable water bottles, create some recycling stations throughout the company. A lot of companies do not recyle, which I found pretty shocking.
Carpooling is also such a great way to help become more eco friendly!! Not enough people car pool. I know so many people who live so close together and work in the same place and do not even bother to car pool. Which is mostly for selfish purposes (time management, more sleep, ect). Car pooling is not that hard, you are not losing that much sleep or time in reality and you are saving gas money and the economy.
Another way to be more eco friendly is to cut utilitiy costs. Turn off lights. It will make your bill less expensive and it will save energy!
Making your business more eco friendly is a lot easier and makes for a cheaper business. People love helping a good cause, so customers don’t care if youre eco friendly! You never know unless you try.
Molly, I think you have mistakenly posted your blog in the comment area.
This is so wild! I didn’t realize what the process of a ticks life was to be able to transfer lyme disease. Before a year ago I had never known anyone who had gotten lyme disease besides animals. I have always had many pets growing up and it seemed a lot of rescue dogs and cats have lyme disease. Though it is very common for outdoor animals to get this disease it is found to not be as detrimental to these animals health than it is to us so that is a plus. Last year though, one of my good friends became ill with lyme disease. She is recovering now, but to think that she got this disease in Maine where it is very north and usually extremely cold is worrying. Even with climate change summers are very short but I suppose long enough for the ticks lifespan. I never knew how far these ticks had traveled.
This post really hit home for me. My mom and Dad both suffered from lymes disease. The traumatic effects and lack of awareness is something that must be recognized and understood as serious as it is. The growing population in ticks relative to a change in climate and the fact that ticks are now found in all fifty states is actually terrifying. I’ve experienced a high level of ticks and therefore lymes in one area and the repercussions of misdiagnosing or not acting early are very serious and prolonged. I really like the factual resources you used and explanations of each they really opened my eyes to the extreme epidemic its become.
Thank-you so much for this illuminating post, Ayesha.
I loved when you shared this in class. I heard of lyme disease before, but didn’t really know what it was or how it was spread. Now that I know, it is a very interesting topic to me and I would like to learn more about it.