Woman develops Lyme disease symptoms after giving birth

In their article, “An Unusual Case of Serologically Confirmed Post-Partum Lyme Disease Following an Asymptomatic Borrelia burgdorferi Infection Acquired during Pregnancy and Lacking Vertical Transmission in Utero,” Pavia et al. describe the case of a young woman who developed symptoms of Lyme disease immediately following the birth of her child. [1]

A 23-year-old woman, who lived in Brooklyn, NY, had visited her primary care doctor complaining of bilateral knee swelling and pain. Three days prior, she had delivered a healthy baby girl.

The pain was reported as 8/10 in severity and was exacerbated by walking, according to the authors.

When the woman was 6 months pregnant, she experienced similar knee pain briefly but never sought treatment.

“Interestingly, except for a brief 2-day period where she experienced knee pain, she remained symptom-free for Lyme disease for the remainder of the pregnancy.”

During her pregnancy the woman had taken several trips to wooded areas in upstate New York.

She denied any known exposure to ticks or the development of any rash.

Testing for Lyme disease was positive by Western blot with several reactive bands including: 18, 23, 28, 33, 41,43, 58, 66, and 93 kDa.

The woman was treated successfully with a 3-week course of doxycycline.

Her newborn was symptom-free at birth and has never shown any of the usual signs or symptoms of active disease well into early childhood and beyond, the authors state.

According to the authors, “There was no evidence for congenital or perinatal transmission of this pathogen at any point pre-term or postnatally.”