Lyme disease: this typical sign on the skin is the first symptom
He announced his illness to his fans on social media. In a (long) message published on July 31, 2025, Justin Timberlake admitted that he had been diagnosed with Lyme disease. "Living with this disease can be endlessly debilitating, both mentally and physically," he confided. The 44-year-old American singer suffers from numerous symptoms, including "massive nerve pain" and "immense fatigue."
Lyme disease is transmitted by ticks, if they are infected with a bacterium called Borrelia . If infected, "the first symptoms appear within 3 to 30 days after the tick bite," according to the French Health Insurance . The first typical symptom is a "red, inflammatory plaque, called erythema migrans," which "appears around the bite site, before gradually spreading." There is no itching, pain, or fever. With antibiotic treatment, the plaque "disappears within 1 to 4 weeks."
But in some cases, the disease manifests itself differently, in the days or weeks following the tick bite. Erythema migrans may appear some time after the bite, sometimes with fever, headaches, fatigue, or even muscle and joint pain. Other chronic symptoms may also appear, including neurological (peripheral facial paralysis, meningitis, etc.), cardiac, or ophthalmological symptoms.
The disease is then more difficult to diagnose, especially if the tick bite has gone unnoticed. If there is no antibiotic treatment after the detection of Lyme disease, then it "can cause, more than 6 months after the tick bite, or even several years, skin, neurological, joint, cardiac, ophthalmological or cognitive disorders" according to the Health Insurance. "Even if the disease is not fatal, in the absence of treatment, it can leave disabling after-effects," specifies the Pasteur Institute .
Lyme disease, which can be prevented by protecting oneself from tick bites, has been increasingly common in recent years. In France, approximately 50,000 cases are diagnosed each year.
L'Internaute
