Lyme disease: spirochetes up to old ticks?

Abstract

A medical mystery, first brought to researchers' attention by two Connecticut mothers, may be nearing solution. It involves an inflammatory disorder that has come to be known as Lyme disease. Investigation began more than six years ago (<i>JAMA</i>[MEDICAL NEWS] 1976;236:241-242), and now researchers from the Rocky Mountain Laboratories, Hamilton, Mont, are reporting a possible cause—a spirochete isolated from ticks of the<i>Ixodes</i>genus. Lyme, the town from which the disease draws its name, is a small community about 15 km north of Long Island Sound near the Connecticut River. In late 1975, a woman from that community, whose daughter was diagnosed as having juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, telephoned Connecticut's state health department in Hartford to point out that at least 11 other children in the locality had similar symptoms. Could there be an explanation other than arthritis? The department shared this information with researchers at Yale University School of Medicine