summer is on its way and that means more
Sun more heat and unfortunately more tix
gross
everyone Julia here for dnews Lyme
disease is weird mysterious and can be
pretty stubborn every Tech season
300,000 Americans will become infected
according to the US Centers for Disease
Control the symptoms are similar to a
flu-like fever and aches so a lot of
cases go untreated only 30,000 cases get
reported each year but other symptoms
can get worse much worse like chronic
and debilitating joint pain you can get
Lyme disease from the bite of a black
legged deer tick but not all ticks carry
the disease according to palmate chief
of epidemiology and surveillance
activity at the CDC one out of every
four or five ticks might be infected in
areas where the disease is very common
there are a lot of misconceptions about
Lyme disease some people think that
everyone who gets the disease will get a
telltale bull's eye redness around the
tick bite but that's not always the case
the CDC says around 70% of people get
the marks but it can vary by region the
Lyme disease doesn't vary too much it's
been reported in every state except
Hawaii the disease is caused by the
bacteria Borrelia burgdorferi the
bacteria is old like really old
researchers from Ohio State University
found ticks infected with it trapped in
amber in the Dominican Republic in a
study published in the journal
historical biology they found they could
be around 15 to 20 million years old
basically as long as people have been
getting bit by ticks there's been Lyme
disease you know that famous ice mummy a
teen yeah he might have had Lyme disease
in analyzing his genome scientists found
fragments of the bacteria's genetic
material at 5300 years old that could be
the oldest case ever found of the
disease let's see like others would have
suffered from some of the nasty symptoms
like pain most of the symptoms are
caused by the way the disease targets
the immune system it triggers
inflammation and can attack the
peripheral nervous system causing pain
spreading from the back to the arms and
legs and hands and feet one study
published the American Journal of
pathology found that this inflammation
can also affect the central nervous
system causing headaches and fatigue and
even scary symptoms like memory loss
learning disability or depression Lyme
disease can be cured if it's caught
early but it's often misdiagnosed as
something else so sometimes these
symptoms persist becoming chronic and
debilitating in about 10 to 20 percent
of patients it's estimated that about a
million Americans live with what's
called post-treatment Lyme disease
a recent study published in
antimicrobial agents in chemotherapy
found why it's just so hard to get rid
of even though Lyme disease is caused by
bacteria antibiotics often don't work to
treat the pathogen so the bacteria forms
what's called dormant persister cells
which evade antibiotics and just like
their name suggests these guides aren't
killed by antibiotics they lie dormant
then they might wake up after a round of
treatment and wreak havoc on the nervous
system but the researchers also
identified two potential treatments for
PTL D one is a treatment for cancer
called mitomycin c which wiped out all
cultures of the bacteria but the
treatment is pretty toxic so it's
probably not the best way to go another
way involves multiple doses of
antibiotics and what's called pulsed
dosing the researchers repeatedly dosed
the bacteria and the first round some
cells died those dormant persister cells
didn't they woke up and tried to
re-establish a population but before
they did
researchers hit them with another round
of antibiotics after four rounds of
treatment the bacteria were all
eradicated but this was only in a test
tube so more research is needed if
you're worried about Lyme disease and
tick bites the CDC recommends knowing
where deer ticks are commonly found
wearing protective clothing and insect
repellant if you go into those areas and
to do daily checks of your body if
you've been outside even in your own
backyard if a tick is attached to your
body for less than 24 hours your chances
of getting the disease are small
speaking of tiny things that could
potentially harm you have you ever
wondered what the heck of iris is I've
got the short end sweet answer for you
in this episode of my new show test-tube
101 check it out and subscribe they have
DNA or RNA but they're not made up of
cells like other life forms they do
reproduce but they need a host cell to
do it the short there weird
have you ever been bitten by a tick or
had Lyme disease tell us your story down
in the comments below don't forget to
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