What Is Lyme Disease
Lyme disease, caused by the spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi, is a tick-borne disease, the global distribution of which corresponds to the distribution of Ixodes tick that transmits the organism. Borrelia burgdorferi is normally carried by mice, squirrels, birds, and other small animals. Ticks become infected while feeding on the infected animal and thus transmit the disease to humans. Deer have been found to be the reservoir for this disease.
Lyme disease is a multisystem inflammatory disorder with a wide spectrum of skin manifestations. Skin lesions are often the first clinical manifestation of the disease; early identification of such lesions is important for prompt diagnosis and treatment which can prevent systemic complications.
Most previously reported cases are from endemic regions like United States, Europe, Middle East, and southeast Asia which are the natural habitat for the vector, the Ixode sticks.
Recently, a rise has been seen in the incidence of disease and the ailment is now being reported from all countries which may be attributed to increased migration of people across nations.
A literature search revealed only a few previously reported cases of Lyme disease from India. This case series illustrates a rare clustering of five cases over a period of 3 months in a nonendemic region, Rohtak, Haryana.
ELISA For Lyme Disease
In the present study, Int J Dermatol report the occurrence of borreliosis in patients from the Brazilian Amazonic region. Nineteen (7.2%) out of 270 dermatological patients with different skin diseases (no one with clinical Lyme disease), tested positive by ELISA for Borrelia burgdorferi. Serum samples from 15 out of the 19 ELISA-positive patients were further evaluated by Western blot. Presence of Borrelia burgdorferi specific IgG was confirmed in eight (53.3%) out of the 15 patients. All eight patients with ELISA and Western blot positive reactions were treated with doxycycline, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines. One of them had clinical manifestations of colagenosis and was sent to the Department of Internal Medicine for further investigation. Data presented here suggested that borreliosis "lato sensu" is in the Brazilian Amazon region.
Lyme Disease In Dogs
It has been proposed that seroprevalence in dogs is a good indicator for Lyme disease risk . Therefore, we investigated if there was evidence for B. burgdorferi exposure in Ohio dogs. From June to August of 2011, leftover plasma samples from a total of 355 Ohio dogs that had blood work done at the OSU Veterinary Medical Center were tested by ELISA for IgG antibodies to B. burgdorferi whole-cell lysate. Among them, 197 (55.4%) were from Franklin County, none were from Coshocton County, and the remaining 158 dogs were from 44 of the other 86 counties in Ohio. Serum samples from 76 healthy greyhound blood donors that had been screened to be free of common vector-borne diseases prior to enrollment and have since been treated with Frontline to prevent vector-borne diseases were included as a control group. The ELISA result indicated that the medium IgG titer was significantly higher in the patient group than in the control group . With an arbitrary cut-off set at the titer of 400, the seroprevalence was 11.5% (41/355) for the patient group, significantly higher than the 1.3% (1/76) for the control group (P = 0.0045, Fisher's exact test). Of the 197 dogs from Franklin County, 26 (13.2%) tested positive, which is not significantly different from the 9.5% (15/158) for dogs outside of Franklin County (P = 0.4, Fisher's exact test).
ELISA For Lyme Disease Related Studies
1.Vijayeeta Jairath et al.(2014). Lyme disease in Haryana.Indian J Dermatol Venereol Leprol.80(4):320-3.
2.Wang Pet al.(2014).Emergence of Ixodes scapularis and Borrelia burgdorferi, the Lyme disease vector and agent, in Ohio.Front Cell Infect Microbiol.4:70.
3.Santos M et al.(2010).Antibody reactivity to Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto antigens in patients from the Brazilian Amazon region with skin diseases not related to Lyme disease.Int J Dermatol. 49(5):552-6.