Lyme disease is widely believed to be transmitted solely to a human being by the black-legged tick which is a carrier of bacteria Borrelli burgdorferi from deer and mice. According to a press release and a report from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in the United States alone, a total of 300,000 new cases of Lyme disease are being reported each year. This makes Lyme disease to be the most common tick-borne disease in America. As a result of this findings, a group of researchers decided to carry out an independent research to establish whether there were other causes of Lyme disease apart from tick bites.
Interestingly, a new study that was published in the Journal of Investigative Medicine in Jan 2014 revealed that Lyme disease may be contagious and could be a sexually transmitted disease. During the study that was led by Marianne Middelvee, the researchers took semen from male patients and vaginal secretions samples from the female patients who tested positive for the bacteria. They took the samples in the laboratories to test the presence of bacteria Borrelli burgdorferi in the samples.
From the results, all the vaginal secretion samples tested positive for the bacteria Borrelli burgdorferi while half of the semen samples tested positive for the bacteria. This means that bacteria Borrelli burgdorferi can be sexually transmitted. This explains the reason why the case of Lyme disease has continued to be high over the years in the United States alone. This study also indicated that Lyme disease is indeed contagious.
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