A tick bite can lead to a number of infections.
One of the best known of these is viral encephalitis – this is much rarer, its course is difficult to mistake, severe symptoms develop quickly, and there is a vaccine against it. If no permanent, severe symptoms appear immediately, there is no need to fear the effects of the disease in the future.
The most common tick-borne infection is Lyme disease. Its causative agent, Borrelia burgdorferi, has been proven to be capable of influencing the immune system, thereby reducing, inhibiting or modifying the immune response against it – the body’s defence mechanism. This is also reflected in the delay or complete inhibition of the development of the so-called long-term immune response (IgG antibodies). The infection can also influence the development of the effect of a vaccine against another disease, for example. Experiments have confirmed that in the case of Lyme borreliosis, immunity cannot be induced with a vaccine developed for another disease: in other words, Lyme borreliosis broadly inhibits the body’s defences. This is also indicated by the delay in the development of antibodies that damage the pathogen, which at the same time makes diagnosis more difficult.
Two factors must be taken into account in relation to diseases spread by ticks:
- on the one hand, not only Lyme disease but also other bacterial infections spread by ticks (Bartonella, Babesia, Anaplasma, Ehrlichia, etc.) can be transmitted by tick bites;
- on the other hand, with the immune system weakened by Lyme disease, other infections already present in the body or newly acquired may have a more severe effect and may persist for a longer period of time.
Some patients may suffer from autism and Asperger’s syndrome, Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, SM, ALS, MG, polymyalgia rheumatica, or some other autoimmune phenomenon, or they may be differentiated from those suffering from complaints that are only recognised as a suspected set of symptoms. We can therefore conclude that, in addition to being able to imitate and cause a number of other “diseases” or rather symptom complexes of as yet unknown origin, Lyme disease is also capable of causing a number of other, even previously unknown, “diseases” or rather symptom complexes.
We can therefore conclude that, in addition to Lyme disease being capable of imitating and causing a number of other “diseases” or rather symptom complexes, some of which are as yet unknown, the infection also opens the door to a number of diseases with known origins and causes.