Name
The general name of this disease was chosen honoring the French microbiologist André Borrel. At first, however, the name Lyme disease had been used remembering that the symptoms of the disease have been discovered in the small village Lyme in Connecticut, USA. In former times, some symptoms of the disease had been known as erythema migrans = wandering skin reddening, which 1893 was described by the Danish dermatologist A. Afzelius. He and the French C. Garin as well as W. Burgdorfer and A. Spielman were honored by dedicating species names as recognition of their tremendous scientific input in the knowledge of the life cycle of Borrelia species and of the different symptoms of disease.
Geographic Distribution/Epidemiology
The USA, Europe, and Asia, in some Ixodes tick regions, prevalence rates of more than 20–50 % had been diagnosed.
Agents of Disease
The disease is introduced by Borrelia bacteria, which are so closely related to the agents of syphilis (Treponema pallidum, syn. Sp...
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References
Further Reading
Mason LMK et al (2014) Ménage à trois: „Borrelia“, dendritic cells, and tick saliva interactions. Trends Parasitol 30:95–103
Radolf JD et al (2012) Of ticks, mice and man: understanding the dual-host life style of Lyme disease spirochaetes. Nat Rev Microbiol 10:87–99
Stanek G et al (2012) Lyme borreliosis. Lancet 379:461–473
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© 2015 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Mehlhorn, H. (2015). Borreliosis. In: Mehlhorn, H. (eds) Encyclopedia of Parasitology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27769-6_435-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27769-6_435-2
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Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
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