Lyme disease is an illness caused when humans are exposed to bacteria carried by certain kinds of ticks, principally deer ticks. It can have a variety of symptoms including flulike symptoms initially. When the disease is untreated these can later progress to arthritic conditions in a variety of the joints, mood changes, and deterioration of muscle function. Another symptom that may be associated with this illness is the Lyme disease rash. Though this isn’t present in all people who get the condition, it can be something to watch for and is a good indication of infection. Being able to recognize Lyme disease rash is important, but it must be stressed that its absence doesn’t necessarily mean a person is free of infection.
The characteristic rash is often called a bull’s-eye rash. This is due to the way it looks a few days after it initially appears. At first, the rash doesn’t look like a bull’s-eye. Instead, it tends to look like one red bump, basically resembling an insect bite.
The bump is usually located right at the site of the tick bite, so if people know where a tick bite occurred, they could circle the area with a pen to see if that area develops any skin irritation. Many people choose not to have ticks evaluated for Lyme disease and instead wait for the indicative rash to appear before they see their doctors. This may not always be the wisest course.
What tends to happen next in the standard rash is that the redness spreads, and the size of the rash can vary in diameter from about one to five inches (2.54-12.7 cm). As the rash spreads, the middle section of it can start to fade. Thus there is a red center, a red exterior and a faded middle, which looks a little bit like a dartboard or a bull’s eye.
While it would be ideal if this rash always develops, it doesn’t. Sometimes people get a number of bumps on the skin and other times they get no rash. Time of development can vary too, and people might show the beginning of a Lyme disease rash just a few days after a bite to up to a month later. What this suggests is that looking for rash alone cannot be the only diagnostic guideline people employ when deciding if they have Lyme disease.
Certainly, presence of the bull's-eye rash is an important indicator, but people should be aware of the other symptoms of Lyme. It’s also highly recommended that folks get any ticks removed from the skin analyzed for the disease, since this can suggest degree of risk. Developing other symptoms after a tick bite is valuable diagnostic information too, and those who have been in Lyme tick areas recently, even if they didn’t notice a bite and don’t have a rash, should mention this to doctors if they develop fever, chills, achiness and other flulike symptoms.
