The singer Justin Timberlake announced that he was reached by this disease transmitted by ticks. How does it declare itself and what are the symptoms to monitor?
He announced his illness to his fans on social networks. In a (long) message published on July 31, 2025, Justin Timberlake admits having been diagnosed with Lyme disease. “Living with this disease can be tirelessly debilitating, both mentally and physically,” he said. The 44 -year -old American singer suffers from many symptoms, including “massive nervous pains” and “immense fatigue”.
Lyme disease is transmitted by ticks, if they are infected with a bacteria called Borrelia. In case of infection, “the first symptoms appear within 3 to 30 days after the tick bite”, according to health insurance. The first typical symptom is a “inflammatory red plate, called migrant erythema”, which “then appears around the stitch point, before gradually stretching”. There are no itching, pain or fever. With antibiotic treatment, the plate “disappears in 1 to 4 weeks”.
But in some cases, the disease manifests itself differently, in the days or weeks following the tick bite. Migrant erythemes can appear at a distance from the bite, sometimes with fever, headache, fatigue or even muscle and joint pain. Other chronic symptoms may also appear, notably neurological (peripheral facial paralysis, meningitis …), cardiac or ophthalmological.
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 tick bite, even several years, skin, neurological, joint, cardiac or cognitive disorders” according to health insurance. “Even if the disease is not fatal, in the absence of treatment, it can leave disabling consequences,” said the Pasteur Institute.
Lyme disease, which can be avoided by protecting itself from tick stings, has been more and more frequent for several years. In France, around 50,000 cases are diagnosed per year.