Lyme Disease Contagious

Lyme Disease Contagious
Lyme disease is a common illness, basically brought about by Borrelia burgdorferi which is a deadly bacterium. This bacterium is commonly found in animals such as mice and deer. The bacterium can be transported to human beings by ixodes ticks which are also known as deer or black-legged ticks. When these ticks bite an infected animal, they pick up the bacterium and then pass it t human bloodstream on biting them.

Lyme disease can affect different body systems such as the nervous system, skin and heart. The symptoms occur in three stages, the first of which is a small rounded rash which occurs within one to two weeks of infection. The rash has a distinct appearance. It may be warm to touch but is generally not itchy.

Because of the relative difficulty with which it is to spot the disease, it is important that you look out for the slightest sign. It is very easy to forget about bite of tick, and a lot of people who contract this disease always cannot even remember when they were bitten by the tick. However, most tick bites do not result in the contraction of Lyme disease.

The question of whether or not Lyme disease is contagious has been the subject of debate for a long time with a section of experts claiming it is contagious while others holed it is not. However, many experts tend to aver that Lyme disease never contagious. This is because, they say, and that the ticks have to find a way of moving from one person to the next as they do not usually hang out in the body fluids. These ticks prefer to be in the tissues. Studies have also shown that transfer through placenta in the blood to new tissues is the most common way of moving.

Another thing is that the bacteria heavily depend on their ability to “re-assemble” their external protein coating to match that of human beings so as to avoid detection by the new host’s immune system. This they can only manage while they are in your blood in inside a deer tick before leaving the tick and entering the bite area. But they lose this opportunity during direct transfer through body fluids for example in the saliva during kissing. This is the reason why scientists believe that a second individual cannot be affected this way.

Lyme disease is not in the least bit contagious.