Lyme Science Blog

Preventing Chronic Lyme Disease Preventing chronic Lyme disease has been a central focus of my clinical practice for more than 37 years. While many patients recover fully with early recognition and treatment, others—despite appropriate care—develop persistent, disabling symptoms affecting multiple body systems. Chronic Lyme disease is rarely caused by a single failure. It is usually […]

In 2020, investigators published a case involving a 13-year-old boy with Lyme arthritis, a common manifestation of Lyme disease, who developed a Herxheimer reaction when treated with doxycycline. On the 7th day of treatment, the boy developed a low-grade fever and severe arthralgias with intense hip, ankle and cervical spine pain and myalgias. You can

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,

Guillain-Barré Syndrome (GBS) is an autoimmune disorder in which your immune system mistakenly attacks the peripheral nerves surrounding the brain and spinal cord. GBS symptoms typically include weakness and/or tingling sensations in the legs, which can spread to the arms and upper body. This patient also reported having three episodes of loose stools, two episodes

The man, in his 70’s, presented with dactylitis (severe swelling of the fingers or toes), onycholysis of the nails (nail separates from the skin) and scalp psoriasis, which lead to the diagnosis of psoriatic arthritis. However, he did not respond to treatment with corticosteroids or disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs. “A skin biopsy was performed showing histopathological

A case report by Lazaro and Butt, published in the International Medical Case Reports Journal, describes a 67-year-old patient with Lyme disease and femoral neuropathy.¹ This is believed to be the first reported case of isolated femoral neuropathy triggered by Lyme disease. Femoral neuropathy, also referred to as femoral nerve dysfunction, involves a loss of

In their article “Transfusion-transmitted babesiosis in a patient with sickle cell disease undergoing chronic red cell exchange,” Costa and colleagues describe a patient who contracted Babesia from a donor living in Ohio, a state that is not considered endemic for Babesia.¹ According to the authors, a 30-year-old man with sickle cell disease (SCD) required approximately

Many people assume that a Bull’s-eye or erythema migrans (EM) rash is a common manifestation of Lyme disease. And that the lack of a rash confirms a person does not have the disease. This is far from the truth. EM rash identification remains a challenge because it often takes on a variety of appearances, according

In their article “Lyme Disease and Papilledema: A Retrospective Study on Clinical Characteristics and Outcomes,” Vithayathil and colleagues, describe findings from a retrospective study involving 44 children who presented with vision complications and were later diagnosed with papilledema and Lyme disease. “Papilledema (optic disc swelling) secondary to intracranial hypertension (IH) has been reported in 6

“We present a rare case of intracranial hypertension due to [Lyme disease] in a pediatric patient treated with EVD placement for CSF diversion and intravenous ceftriaxone, resulting in a significant improvement in symptoms,” including vision loss, the authors state. A 13-year-old boy was admitted to the emergency department complaining of a headache (which had been