- Lyme disease (borreliosis) is a tick-borne bacterial infection caused by the spirochaete Borrelia burgdoferi, transmitted by hard-backed Ixodes ticks.
- Lyme disease is a multisystem disease.
- The nervous system is the second most commonly affected system after the skin.
- Other systemic manifestations, such as carditis, keratitis, uveitis and inflammatory arthritis, rarely occur in European Lyme disease.
- Patient education and early recognition and treatment of the disease are critical to reduce the impact of chronic long-term infection.
- Serology is the mainstay of confirmation of Lyme borreliosis. 2-tier testing (STTT) has been commonly used since the mid 1990s. STTT detection of early, localized infection is poor; that of late disease is good. The best indicator of stage 1 infection, erythema migrans.
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