First Thai with Lyme disease after holiday in Turkey
A Thai person caught Lyme disease after she went to Turkey for a holiday. Doctor Manon Leechawengwong wants to warn Thai people traveling abroad or those planning to travel abroad to be careful of catching Lyme disease. The woman who has Lyme disease was in a coma relying on a ventilator, her right side of the face and her right arm was also paralyzed.
After 5 months of medical care, the woman has now lost her memory. The last thing she remembers is traveling back from Turkey. Lyme Disease is caused by a bacteria called borrelia which belongs to a group named spirochetes. Ticks are the carrier of the bacteria that feed on animal blood including dogs, horses, rats, and deer, the ticks then spread the disease when biting a human.
Lyme disease is found in many countries including Turkey. Thailand has never had a history of patients with Lyme disease. Normally the symptoms of the disease will take about 2 to 4 weeks after being infected with the bacteria to manifest. Common symptoms include rash around the tick bite, headache, weakness, and more.
The 47-year-old Thai woman went for an 8 day holiday in Turkey. 17 days after returning to Thailand symptoms started to show, similar to a cold. The first time she went to the hospital the doctor confirmed that she didn’t have influenza or Hemorrhagic fever and her chest X-ray came out normal.
4 days after the first hospital visit, she started to have a slow heart rate, seizures in her right side of the face and right arm followed with a coma. After doing several tests and scans for other diseases the results kept coming out to be normal. Finally, after some medication, she was able to breathe on her own and gained her conscious back. They sent a Borellia Antibody blood test that revealed she had Lyme disease.
The woman slowly got better and left the hospital after 2 months. About 5 months later she was able to work. She has lost a lot of memory including memories of being in the hospital, memories of the holiday, and many other memories except the memory of flying back to Thailand.
FB Caption: The woman was in the hospital for 2 months, the only thing she remembers is flying back to Thailand.
Source: Khaosod
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