Lyme Basics Find the two ticks attached to this child’s face. Lyme disease (often misspelled as “Lime” or “Lymes”) is an inflammatory infection that spreads to humans through tick bites. Lyme is a borreliosis caused by borrelia bacteria, which commonly infects animals like birds, mice, other small rodents, and deer. Ticks pick up the bacteria by biting infected animals, and then pass it on to other animals, including human hosts. There are many strains or genospecies of borrelia that cause Lyme disease (borreliosis) in humans just as there are many strains of the flu virus that cause flu symptoms in humans, with some strains more virulent than others. In the photo to the right, the two dark freckles, one on the cheek and one on the neck, are actually ticks attached to this child’s face. 3 stages of Lyme (often blurred together quite rapidly) Stage 1: Early infection (first few days after infection) Stage 2: Infection spreads (days to weeks fol...