Lyme Disease

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Hengge, et al. (2003) inLyme borreliosis provide an overview of Lyme disease, with reference to certain statistical information about the disease to show infection rates. The article is aimed at providing a background information about the disease, its treatment, and the possible ways through which it could be prevented or minimized. The hypothesis of the review is that Lyme disease is a condition that is brought to humans via vectors, especially ticks, and that the recovery rates among infected humans is high and successful, as long as appropriate treatment is provided. However, the authors also argue that Lyme disease tends to be misunderstood among practitioners, pointing out that there is the general tendency of doctors to misdiagnose…show more content…
However, the discussion provides an indication that the main hypothesis of this article is that Borrelia burgdorferi can create the symptoms generally associated with Lyme disease by way of bacterial byproducts that can negatively impact the host’s tissues, rather than the actual virulence of Borrelia burgdorferi. As such, the authors also shows that expression of Lyme disease symptoms in a patient could be due to such byproducts and not necessarily because of such virulence…show more content…
Basically, it is shown that the Borrelia burgdorferi need to be able to create and keep producing such byproducts in order to ensure that they would persist inside their hosts. The results of the study also point out that these byproducts are the main reasons for the manifested symptoms. For instance, the byproduct OspC has been found as one of the most significant in leading to the characteristics symptoms of Lyme disease. However, the Borrelia burgdorferi is not yet fully and adequately researched to provides information about the various byproducts that the microorganism produces. For instance, there can be a wide variety of these byproducts produced, dependent on the conditions inside the host. The authors concludes that these byproducts are the ones mainly responsible for the expression of the symptoms generally linked or recognized as belonging to Lyme
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