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- Lyme disease and COVID-19 can have similar symptoms,
but there's some important things
that distinguish them as well.
The similarities include presenting with symptoms
that we sometimes call flu-like symptoms,
which are fever, chills, generalized muscle aches and pains.
Those flu-like symptoms are actually common
to both COVID and Lyme disease.
What's different is COVID is a respiratory infection,
so COVID almost always,
in addition to those flu-like symptoms,
will have cough, shortness of breath, sore throat,
things that are typical respiratory symptoms.
Those respiratory symptoms are not typically part
of Lyme disease.
Some particular symptoms that are found in COVID
that are unique to COVID when we compare it to Lyme disease,
one very specific symptom is a loss of taste and smell
which is peculiar to COVID and it doesn't occur
with any regularity in Lyme disease.
The other feature of COVID can be diarrhea, in some cases.
And, again, diarrhea is not a typical manifestation
of Lyme disease.
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A common symptom in Lyme disease
that is unique to Lyme disease
and not present that often in COVID
is neck pain and joint pain.
Lyme disease has a predisposition
for causing joint inflammation and pain
and that's not typically part of COVID.
The other very important difference are the rash
or skin manifestations.
It's well known that Lyme disease has a predilection
for causing a round skin lesion.
It's red and, sometimes,
takes the appearance of a target lesion.
But, it's almost always large, red and round,
typically more than two to three inches in size.
This red lesion occurs at the site of the tick bite,
where the infection is initiated
and it's really highly suggestive of Lyme disease.
These types of rashes are not seen in COVID.
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COVID has a rash in some cases as well,
but it's very different.
The COVID rash is not a single lesion at the site
of a tick bite.
It's not a single lesion at all.
The COVID rash is more of a diffused lesion.
It shouldn't be difficult to distinguish the rash
of COVID from Lyme disease.
There are reports of COVID causing a rash
that it can occur especially in children,
but, again, the rash of COVID it doesn't look at all
like the single, round lesions of Lyme disease.
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It's very important this time of the year
to be able to distinguish Lyme disease from COVID.
We're, of course, still in the time period
where COVID is common and now we're also entering
the time period when Lyme disease will be common.
Acute Lyme disease occurs
in the late spring and early summer
and it maybe, especially, a bad year, this year
because people are spending more time social distancing
and still wanna get outdoors,
so they may appropriately wanna get exercise and fresh air.
That's great, but, of course, then that raises issues
of exposure to tick bites,
so the last thing we want is people responding to exercise
and the need to get outside with increasing the risk
for Lyme disease.
This is particularly important because the acute symptoms
of Lyme disease can overlap
with the acute symptoms of COVID
and so, if somebody gets exposed to tick bites,
gets Lyme disease, it may be difficult
to distinguish acute Lyme disease from COVID.
This difficulty is especially a problem
if the patient doesn't have the typical Lyme disease rash
and, unfortunately, not everyone gets the rash.
Those remaining flu-like symptoms without a rash
can look a lot like COVID.
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