Global eradication of Lyme disease is unlikely because?
Borrelia burgdorferi can be maintained in nature indefinitely by a tick vector. This organism is the tick-transmitted spirochete that causes Lyme disease. The tick, Ixodes dammini, can infect both the white-footed mouse and large mammals such as deer during its life cycle, making them reservoirs. The tick itself is a reservoir, however, since it acquires the disease through transovarial passage of the organism. Together, these factors make Lyme disease an endemic infection with little hope for eradication. Borrelia burgdorferi is not resistant to antibiotics and disinfectants. The spirochete can be successfully treated with penicillins, tetracycline, and ceftriaxone. Borrelia burgdorferi is a delicate spirochete and is not resistant to environmental stresses. Brill-Zinsser disease is the reactivation of epidemic typhus infection caused by Rickettsia prowazekii. It can occur many years after an infection that was not treated with antibiotics. Ref: Brooks G.F. (2013). Chapter 24. Spirochetes and Other Spiral Microorganisms. In G.F. Brooks (Ed), Jawetz, Melnick, & Adelberg's Medical Microbiology, 26e.
Borrelia burgdorferi can be maintained in nature indefinitely by a tick vector
Borrelia burgdorferi is resistant to antibiotics and disinfectants
Borrelia burgdorferi is resistant to environmental stresses
Human disease may reactivate after the primary infection (Brill-Zinsser disease)