Lyme Science Blog

The study looked at long-term survival, health, social functioning, and education in patients with European Lyme neuroborreliosis (LNB). The authors found no difference between patients with LNB and the general population in several areas, including: education, divorce and marriage rate, or mortality. Furthermore, although there was a greater number of patients on disability than expected, […]

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

Lyme Disease in Children Rising in Pennsylvania: Study Data According to the CDC, in 2016, nearly 38% of all Lyme disease cases occurred in Pennsylvania. Other studies report that ticks infected with Borrelia burgdorferi are now detectable in every county in Pennsylvania, with infection rates similar to endemic Northeastern states. A new study examines the

“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

Steroids and Bell’s Palsy: 54% Had Lyme Complications A case 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. All of the patients with Lyme disease facial palsy (LDFP) received corticosteroids in addition to antibiotics. The authors found that

“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

Preventing Unnecessary Surgery for Children With Lyme Arthritis Lyme arthritis misdiagnosis in children can lead to unnecessary surgery when Lyme arthritis is mistaken for bacterial septic arthritis. This matters because both conditions can present with an acutely swollen, painful joint—often in an emergency setting where decisions must be made quickly. Lyme arthritis is one of