Lyme Science Blog

Patients with recurrent Lyme disease and Lyme encephalopathy have waited an average of 2 years before receiving treatment, [1,2]  This delay can have life-long repercussions. Once the Borrelia burgdorferi (Bb) infection disseminates, symptoms can become more problematic and treatment more difficult. There has been limited published information about the reasons for such delays. Now, a […]

According to the CDC, in 2016, nearly 38% of all Lyme disease cases occurred in Pennsylvania. Other studies report “ticks infected with B. burgdorferi are now detectable in every county in Pennsylvania, with infection rates similar to that of endemic Northeastern states.” Now, a new study examines the impact of Lyme disease among children living

“The impact of Lyme disease on work and caregiving activities emerged as a salient theme for participants, impacting patients prior to treatment and, in some cases, even after treatment,” writes Hirsch and colleagues in the British Medical Journal. [1] The authors identified 26 patients who were diagnosed with Lyme disease between 2014 and 2017 and

The series by Wormser and colleagues, published in the journal Diagnostic Microbiology and Infectious Disease examines the success of treatment after long-term follow-up with eleven patients. [1] All of the patients with LDFP received corticosteroids, in addition to antibiotics. The authors found that 6 of the 11 patients (54.5%) suffered from facial nerve dysfunction an

“Our ignorance is often unbearable and may lead us to turn a blind eye on non-lesional diseases,” explains Raoult from the Aix-Marseille Université in France. [1] Such ignorance, Raoult says, has at times led scientists to believe that some diseases had a “psychiatric cause while they were somatic and could be easily treated.” One could say

Over the years, there has been much discussion and debate over whether reducing the deer population would in turn help lower the risk of Lyme disease, particularly in endemic regions. A 2014 study found that reducing the deer population “dramatically reduced I. scapularis abundance and Lyme disease cases on a Connecticut peninsula.” [1] A study

“We here describe the case of an 83-year-old man for whom we strongly suspect Lyme neuroborreliosis as the etiology of his stroke,” writes Moreno Legast and colleagues in the journal Hindawi Case Reports in Neurological Medicine. [1] The patient was admitted to the emergency room complaining of right-sided weakness and speech difficulties, which had developed

A study in 2003 found that 7 out of 10 children with Lyme disease, who were admitted to an emergency room with an acutely swollen joint, were suspected of having bacterial septic arthritis and underwent surgery, according to Willis. [1] So, can we prevent unnecessary surgery for children with Lyme arthritis? asks Gendelberg from Penn State

While many of these cases may be due to infections acquired when travelling to regions outside of New York City, it is important for clinicians to consider tick-borne diseases in their differential diagnoses in patients living in urban areas. The importance of this is reflected in a recent case study entitled, “A Walk in the