Lyme Disease Analysis

Lyme disease was discovered in the 1970’s, as any other disease was, by a large number of cases, with patients having the same symptoms. In Lyme, Connecticut, a doctor was having patients who were all suffering from the same symptoms that made patients become debilitated. There were so many cases that the doctor marked it as an unknown disease. It wasn’t until later in the 1980’s that there were more widespread cases throughout the north-east. Lyme disease is becoming a serious problem in the north-east and especially in New York State, given the drastic increase of cases. Without treatment Lyme disease can result in blindness and in severe cases, death.

One of the more common pests located in the Northeastern United States is the Black Legged Tick (Ixodes scapularis). More commonly known as the “Deer Tick” this animal primarily inhabits wooded areas populated by warm-blooded wildlife. Specifically the temperate Pine Barrens in Southern New Jersey, which hosts the 2nd largest tick population in the country (CDC, 2010), the black legged tick is a common pest that spreads lyme disease. This disease is a bacterial infection caused by the tick latching onto a host and feeding for an extended period of time. These ticks attach to most warm blooded woodland creatures and any human beings unfortunate enough to get close enough.

According to Dr. Dietrich Klinghardt (a world renowned Lyme expert), Lyme disease is considered the plague of the century due to the large number of people with chronic Lyme disease and the associated co-infections. The number one symptom of Lyme is chronic fatigue. People can have Lyme for a very long time and not be properly diagnosed because current laboratory testing comes up short with being able to detect it. One of the main reasons for this is because chronic Lyme does not live in the blood but rather in the tissues. It is an intracellular organism meaning it lives inside the cell. Lyme has different shapes: spirochete (like a spring), cyst with a hard shell, and acellular (without an outer cell membrane). Lyme likes to set up a sanctuary in the body such as in the brain, teeth (such as under a root canal or in a cavitation), vertebrae, breast tissue, and lymph nodes. It looks for a place where it can be protected and the body is vulnerable preferably in fatty tissue or under a biofilm. While traditionally Lyme disease is considered a tick-borne disease, recent findings have discovered that it is an insect-borne disease that can get transferred

“Borrelia burgdorferi, the bacterium that causes Lyme disease, was first isolated in 1982 by Willy Burgdorfer, Ph.D., a zoologist and microbiologist at NIAID’s Rocky Mountain Laboratories (RML) in Hamilton, Montana.” (NIAID, 2008.) Dr. Burgdorfer at the time was studying Rocky Mountain Fever in attempt to help Jorge Benach, Ph.D., discover why more than 100 spotted fever cases occurred in New York between 1971 and 1976. “Dr. Benach, of the New York State Department of Health had been a source of American dog ticks for Burgdorfer to study.” (NIAID, 2008.)

“Lyme disease got its name from where it was first discovered in Lyme, Connecticut in 1975” (healthychildren.org). “Since then there has been thousands of cases reported of the disease. The ticks live in low and high seasonal temperatures and high humidity” (healthychildren.org). Lyme Disease most common to occur in the Northeast, North-central states, or West Coast. On behalf of the Northeast, I can tell you that ticks are everywhere in this region. They like to live in tall grasses and woody areas. “The small insects more than often latch onto the foot or lower leg and crawl up the body, and travel up the body with a destination of the head. On their normal hosts, ticks also usually crawl up; they want to blood feed around the

Thesis Statement: “According to the Center of Disease Control, Lyme disease is the most commonly reported vector borne illness in the United States”(Lyme Disease: Data and statistics, 2016).

Lyme disease has emerged as the most common vector borne infectious disease in the United States and has presented a growing challenge to public health officials over the past three decades. The infection represents a significant disease burden to the population of the United States with nearly 30,000 new cases diagnosed per year and an estimated additional 270,000 annual incident cases that go unreported. The disease results from a bacterial infection with the spirochete bacteria B. burgdorferi. This bacterial agent is transmitted to humans from the bite of a tick and is most commonly associated Ixodes species blacklegged ticks. These ticks represent the largest genus of the family Ixodidae and mainly inhabit temperate forest or grassland

Most humans are infected through the bites of immature ticks called nymphs. Nymphs are tiny and difficult to see, and spring and summer is the time they

Lyme disease has been a problem for those living in and around the New England area for the last few decades. Unfortunately, researchers have just discovered that the deer ticks are expanding their reach, with a surge over 320 percent. The ticks are slowly branching out into the connecting counties and states. It is believed that they are branching out due to climate change.

A survey was composed to try to understand whether living around wooded areas could increase susceptibility towards getting Lyme Disease, whether owning outdoor pets was a risk towards getting Lyme Disease, and finally, what type of deer tick preventative measures work best amongst animals. Surveys were collected in two ways: online surveys and telephone surveys. In the end, the results were checked through statistical analysis and proven significant. All the results were posted on the Facebook page.

What would you do if you found yourself in a violent situation? Someone tries to fight you when you’re on the subway on your daily commute to work? Would you try to run away, or call the police? Now what if it’s someone you love, and you can’t run away because it was your fault anyway and they need you. This is how 1 in 4 American men feel. The Stigma against men talking about domestic abuse is harmful and often makes men feel that they can’t talk about it due to the hyper-masculinity in our media

Lyme disease is common in North America, Europe, and Asia, and the spreading of the vectors influences the occurrence of the disease. Ixodes scapularis is the important vector found in the Northeast and Central United States and Canada, while Ixodes pacificus is more normal on the Pacific coast. Ixodes ricinus is the key vector in Europe. The vector in Asia is the taiga tick, Ixodes persulcatus.

For many years, China’s economy ran and was fueled by agriculture, but that all changed with the struggle of power. In 1949 the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) took over and founded the People's Republic of China (PRC). Mao Zedong, the Party’s leader, decided to steer away the country from agriculture and pursued the development of heavy industry as a means to submerged the country in a self-contained industrial economy (O’neil pg. 391). Due to the Korean War and Taiwan’s Nationalist Party’s confrontation with China, Self-containment was became very important (Lecture).

Global warming may increase the risk of some infectious diseases, like malaria, dengue fever, yellow fever, and encephalitis. These diseases are spread by mosquitoes and other insects, and could become more common if a rise in temperature allows those insects to live farther north. Also, the increase in rainfall that is likely to occur with an increase in global temperature would serve to help increase the reproduction of the vectors. In February 1999, Britain's Institute of Animal Health linked outbreaks of the lethal horse fever virus in Africa to the El Nino phenomenon. The warming and increase in rainfall in Africa caused by El Nino led to many more horses being bitten by infected vectors. The scientists said their research shows this pattern is likely to happen with other vector-borne diseases when global warming occurs. Increased temperatures could also reduce the gestation periods of disease vectors, which could aid the breeding of strains resistant to pesticides. Scientists also hypothesize that algae

P.13 #2. How would you go about recruiting, screening, and selecting members for one of your groups?