Bizz-News Magazine 01 | Page 13

There's A New Species Of Bacteria That Can Cause
Lyme Disease
© John Flannery, CC BY-SA 2.0 the

CDC announces the discovery of a
new bacterial species that can
cause Lyme disease. Above, a
member of the insect species that
primarily spread Lyme in the U.S.,
the deer tick. The CDC announces
the discovery of a new bacterial
species that can cause Lyme
disease.
The unpleasant roster of tick-borne
pathogens is officially welcoming a
new member.

This Monday, the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention, in conjunction
with the Mayo Clinic and local health
officials, announced the discovery of a new,
if related, bacterial species capable of
causing Lyme disease in people. The
species, given the interim moniker of
Borrelia mayonii, is the first new species
unambiguously connected to Lyme in
North America, though there are other
species that cause a variant of Lyme
elsewhere. Prior to the discovery, only
Borrelia burgdorferi was definitively linked
to Lyme on this side of the Atlantic. The
study detailing the discovery was published
in Lancet Infectious Diseases over the
weekend as well.

States," said senior author Dr. Jeannine
Petersen, CDC microbiologist, in a
statement.
The Great Imitator
Complex is right.
To sum up as best we can: Traditionally,
Lyme, or more formally borreliosis, in North
America is thought to be caused by the
germ specifically called B. burgdorferi. But
globally, Lyme is caused by a wide-ranging
subset of bugs related to B. burgdorferi,
each with their own demographical range,
choice of insect vectors (though it’s usually
ticks), and symptoms. The latter partially
explains why Lyme is also considered B