Neurological Lyme Disease

Neurological Lyme Disease
Usually, the victim of neurological Lyme disease develops a rash on the spot where the tick bites. The rash is sometimes very painful and too sensitive to touch. The rash may vary in size, shape and color, but the common characteristic is that it often is a red ring with a clear centre, like a bull's eye.

In other instances, the rash may not develop. Here, it becomes difficult to diagnose, because its signs and symptoms are similar to those of many other conditions. About a week after the tick bite, the first stage of Lyme disease exhibits flu-like symptoms including fever, chills, headaches, swollen lymph nodes, fatigue, muscle and joint pains.

Neurological Lyme disease is often common with the second stage of the disease. In this stage, the patient experiences numbness, weakness, pain, paralysis of the facial muscles, visual problems. Other symptoms are fever, stiff neck and severe headache. Other problems which may follow include loss of concentration, memory and sleep disorders, irritability and nerve damage in the arms and legs.

This disease, including the neurological phase, is treated with antibiotics with the supervision of a doctor. Most patients respond well to antibiotics and gain full recovery. However, in some patients, symptoms may persist making it necessary for additional antibiotic treatment. Damage of joints or nervous system damage may develop in serious cases of neurological Lyme disease.

Joint or nervous system damage may be varied in extent, and in some cases, individuals may even die from neurological Lyme disease and its complications.

The diagnosis of the disease, including the neurological stage can be done by use of an Elisa antibody test. Positive results would indicate the presence of Lyme disease. There are occasions where people without Lyme disease, whether in the early stages or the neurological Lyme disease stage, may show positive results to the Elisa test. This is a false positive, which is due to other conditions such as syphilis, HIV and so on.

The Elisa test is normally unreliable during first weeks of infection. However, if treated early with antibiotics, the patient can recover. The more reliable test is the Western Blot Test, which is more specific, and is only resorted to when a patient records positive results for the Elisa test. It is used as a confirmatory test, and if it turns positive, it confirms presence of the disease, including neurological Lyme disease.