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Lyme disease

Borreliosis Lyme · Lymeská borelióza

What it is

Tick-borne Borrelia; early treatment cures it, late treatment is harder.

Symptoms & signs

  • Expanding red rash around the bite (erythema migrans), often without a bullseye centre
  • flu-like illness
  • later: joint swelling, facial palsy, heart block, nerve pain

🚩 Get help if…

  • call 112 / 911 now Fainting or a slow, irregular heartbeat after a tick bite
  • see a doctor soon Red ring growing from a tick bite
  • see a doctor soon Drooping of one side of the face
  • see a doctor soon Fever, headache or joint swelling weeks after a bite

Where it strikes

  • Skin
  • Joints & cartilage
  • Nervous system

Medical treatment

  • Doxycycline 10–21 days
  • ceftriaxone for neurological or cardiac disease
  • remove ticks within 24 h

Natural & lifestyle

  • Tuck trousers into socks
  • permethrin-treated clothing
  • daily tick checks
  • prompt tick removal with tweezers

Emerging & experimental

  • Lyme vaccine VLA15 (phase 3)
  • pre-exposure monoclonal antibody

Alternative, off-label & anecdotal

Approaches used outside the guidelines, with what their supporters report and what testing has found so far.

  • Months of antibiotics for 'chronic Lyme' — trials found no benefit and real harm not confirmed in trials
  • Disulfiram — killed Borrelia in the laboratory; small case series early / small studies
  • Herbal protocols (Buhner, Cowden) — laboratory activity; no human trials anecdotal / traditional

ICD codes