Lyme Disease is a bacterial inflammatory disease classified as an emerging infectious disease characterized by a rash accompanied with fever and joint swelling. It is zoonetic and is caused by at least three species of bacteria belonging to the genus Borrelia usually transmitted or carried by the bite of a deer tick. In the United States, the Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto is the main cause of Lyme disease while in most European countries, the main cause is identified as the Borrelia afzelii and Borrelia garinii. The name of the disease is derived from the name of the town Lyme in Connecticut.
Lyme disease is considered the most common disease in the Northern Hemisphere carried by ticks. Signs of the onset of the disease are fever, fatigue, headache, depression, and erythema migrans, a distinctive circular skin rash.