Avril Lavigne has Lyme Disease; 12 Facts About the Illness

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Avril Lavgine has confirmed that she had Lyme disease and was bedridden for almost five months. "I had no idea a bug bite could do this, I was bedridden for five months," the Canadian singer told People magazine. 

The punk princess had been sick for months before she visited Las Vegas with her friends in September 2014 to celebrate her 30th birthday. She said that she couldn't take any food and felt sick throughout the trip. When her friends asked what was wrong with her, she couldn't tell because she didn't know the answer herself.

Lavgine was then diagnosed positive for Lyme disease and spent months bedridden at her home in Ontario with her mom and her husband, Nickelback's Chad Kroeger.

"I felt like I couldn't breathe, I couldn't talk and I couldn't move. I thought I was dying," said Lavgine. "There were definitely times I couldn't shower for a full week because I could barely stand. It felt like having all your life sucked out of you."

When the hashtags "PrayForAvril" and "GetWellSoonAvril" went viral on Twitter in December 2014, Lavgine seemingly confirmed she was sick when she replied to her fans with a simple "thank you". She then wrote on Twitter on December 7, "I feel bad because I haven't been able to say anything to the fans to let them no (sic) why I've been absent," reported Daily News.  

Not much is known about Lyme Disease, so we've listed 12 facts about the illness

1. About 30,000 Americans are diagnosed with Lyme disease every year, notes USA Today, based on a CDC report.

2. Majority of cases are reported from Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Virginia and Wisconsin.

3. Lyme disease is caused by bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi

4. The infectious bacterium is transmitted to humans through the bite of infected blacklegged ticks.

5. It takes around 3 to 30 days for the signs and symptoms to appear after the insect bite.

6. The disease is usually reported from June to August, peaking just after the mid-May to mid-July period.

7. The symptoms of Lyme disease include headache, fatigue, fever, and erythema migrans, a type of skin rash.

8. If the disease is not diagnosed and treated early, the bacterial infection could spread to joints, the heart, and the nervous system, according to CDC.

9. Arthritis is common among people suffering from Lyme disease.

10. Lyme disease was first recognized in 1975 at Lyme located in the coastal region of West Dorset among children diagnosed with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, according to Web MD.

11. Interestingly the infectious bacteria are found on deer and are carried by ticks from deer to humans.

12. Dog ticks and wood ticks don't spread Lyme disease because they don't carry the infectious bacterium.