Yoshinari N H, Steere A C, Cossermelli W
AMB Rev Assoc Med Bras. 1989 Jan-Feb;35(1):34-8.
Lyme disease is an infectious disease caused by the spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi, transmitted by certain ixodid ticks. The illness usually occurs in stages with many different clinical manifestations. The disease starts with a typical cutaneous lesion called erythema cronicum migrans, that usually develops at the site of the tick bite. After weeks or months, some patients develop neurological abnormalities, particularly meningitis, cranial nerve paralysis, peripheral radiculoneuritis, or cardiac involvement, such as atrioventricular blockade, myopericarditis and cardiomegaly, or migratory musculoskeletal pain. Months or years later, many patients develop arthritis, which usually occurs in intermittent attacks for several years. Lyme disease was only recently recognized in the United States. However this borreliosis has now been recognized in every continent except South America. In this paper we review the clinical and laboratorial features of Lyme borreliosis and discuss the possibility of its presence in Brazil or other parts of South America, where it has recently been recognized that ixodid ticks are common.
莱姆病是一种由伯氏疏螺旋体引起的传染病，通过某些硬蜱传播。该病通常分阶段出现，有许多不同的临床表现。疾病开始时会出现一种典型的皮肤病变，称为慢性游走性红斑，通常在蜱叮咬部位出现。数周或数月后，一些患者会出现神经异常，尤其是脑膜炎、颅神经麻痹、周围神经根神经炎，或心脏受累，如房室传导阻滞、心肌心包炎和心脏扩大，或游走性肌肉骨骼疼痛。数月或数年后，许多患者会出现关节炎，通常会间歇性发作数年。莱姆病直到最近才在美国被认识到。然而，除南美洲外，现在各大洲都已认识到这种疏螺旋体病。在本文中，我们回顾了莱姆疏螺旋体病的临床和实验室特征，并讨论了其在巴西或南美洲其他地区存在的可能性，最近人们发现在这些地方硬蜱很常见。
