Lyme Disease- Transmitted by Deer Ticks to Humans and Pets

Lyme disease was first described and named at Yale University in the mid 1970s. In 1975, large numbers of children were coming down with what appeared to be juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, at an incomprehensible rate; these symptoms were caused by what became known as Lyme disease. Deer ticks, infected by a bacterium known as Borrelia burgdorferi, transmit Lyme disease through their bite. Found mostly in the Northeast, the Midwest, and Northern California, Lyme disease displays symptoms that closely resemble arthritis if undetected or left untreated.

Deer ticks are minute, about the size of the head of a pin, and their brown color makes them hard to see. When they bite a human being, they can secrete a substance that makes the person feel no pain or itching, so that they go unnoticed.
Researchers used to think that for the Lyme disease bacteria to be transmitted to a person, a deer tick had to be attached for as long as two days, but recent studies indicate it may take as little as a few hours for the process to be completed. The disease takes it name from the town in Connecticut where the children were being infected, Old Lyme, and although the disease has spread across the nation, a majority of the cases reported are limited to the Nutmeg State and New York.