What are the first signs of Lyme disease?
Usually, a “target lesion”, that is, an expanding circle where the edge is red or inflamed and the center fairly clear. Fever, chills, sore throat and “flu like” symptoms (headache, stiff neck, nonproductive cough) are more common that the “classic” finding. There is an incubation period ranging form 3-30 days. Cardiac and neurologic findings occur later in the disease in affected patients (15% or so) and muscle pain is common in this stage. A very late finding is the arthritis which occurs months later.
