There is controversy regarding whether objective neurobiological abnormalities exist after intensive antibiotic treatment for Lyme disease.
Lyme neuroborreliosis is a tick-borne illness with central and peripheral nervous system manifestations. Clinical features and methods for accurate diagnosis differ across world regions owing to different causative Borrelia species. The importance of these distinctions is highlighted by a 12 year old Canadian girl who acquired Lyme neuroborreliosis in Europe.
The Lyme disease spirochete, Borrelia burgdorferi, is an extracellular microbe that causes persistent infection despite the development of strong immune responses against the bacterium.
University scientists have made a key advance in understanding the proteins and mechanisms involved in the spread of Lyme disease, a finding that could lead to a vaccine against the tick-borne illness that affects thousands of people each year.
The recent article in the NEJM, “Two Controlled Trials of Antibiotic Treatment in Patients with Persistent Symptoms and a History of Lyme Disease,” by Klempner, et. al., provides some interesting data, but the proper interpretation of this data is of little relevance to both clinical practice and guidelines related to chronic Lyme disease.
Alan Stone of Chelmsford, who suffers from Lyme disease along with his daughter Angela, 14, says insurance companies are afraid of the high expenses that can come from long-term treatments.
Lyme disease is a multisystem infectious disease caused by the tick-borne spirochete, Borrelia burgdorferi. Central nervous system (CNS) involvement typically causes local inflammation, most commonly meningitis, but rarely parenchymal brain involvement.
Carios kelleyi (Colley & Kohls 1941), a tick associated with bats and bat habitats, has been reported to feed on humans, but there is little published data regarding the presence of vector-borne pathogens in these ticks.
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