High School Students Want to Know: What are the symptoms of Lyme disease?

Question #2:

What are the symptoms of Lyme disease? How does Lyme disease affect the human body?

Beyond the list of symptoms below, there are still more questions than answers.  There is a lot that medical science does not know about how the bacteria that cause Lyme disease affects the human body; for example, why there seems to be a lot of variation in symptoms and in the severity of symptoms between people and where the bacteria seem to cause problems, sometimes in the joints, sometimes the heart muscle and other times in the nervous system.  It’s an unusual type of bacteria, and we just have a lot to learn before we can really give a good answer to this question.

According to the CDC

Typical “early” signs are:

• A distinctive rash 
• Fever  
• Chills  
• Headache  
• Muscle and joint pain  
• Fatigue

Symptoms of untreated or long-term Lyme disease include:

• Multiple rashes 
• Facial paralysis on one side of the face
• Fever
• Stiff neck
• Headache
• Weakness, numbness or pain in arms or legs
• Irregular heartbeat
• Dizziness, feeling lightheaded, or heart palpitations
• Persistent weakness and fatigue
• Joint swelling from arthritis in one or more joints, usually the knees
• Problems with the nervous system
• Persistent weakness and fatigue

It is important to note that not everyone may have every symptom, and not all symptoms are equally severe from person to person. Read more from the CDC here.

 

Post by C. Fisher