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Northeastern researchers look at possible way to kill Lyme Disease dead
By adamg on Fri, 06/12/2015 - 8:25am
WBUR reports on work at Northeastern to deal with the fact that Lyme Disease often doesn't seem to completely die off after treatment with antibiotics: Researchers are looking at how to kill off the "persister" spores that can erupt back into infection after a patient is given a regular course of the drugs - by adding additional courses of medication over a period of time.
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Comments
I thought it was established
I thought it was established that chronic Lyme is a myth that just won't die, and the evidence that seems to support chronic Lyme is in fact resultant damage to the bodies systems due to the Lyme, and not the Lyme itself remaining active.
I don't think it was established.....
But I think what you are saying is true.
I had Lyme disease and it sucked. Took some antibiotics and it went away thank god.
No, but..
Lyme disease is real, but like anything else hypochondriacs flock to it. The fact that there is no known cure makes it perfect for people who crave attention. I also know of Gov't employees who have been out on disability with acute case of Lyme. They claimed that they were in too much pain to do a desk job and use the off time rumbling around on a Harley.
Read the cited papers
by clicking through a couple levels.
In a minority of Lyme patients, especially those diagnosed and treated late, persister cells will survive antibiotics. Dr. Lewis is adding support for a protocol that four cycles of antibiotic treatment pulses be the standard where Lyme isn't immediately diagnosed and treated.
From what I've read/heard, and understand, however,
Lyme Disease can be cured by a ten-day course of anti-biotics, without trouble, if caught and treated early enough, during the first stage of it. At the time one first notices the bulls-eye-like rash is an early stage of Lyme disease, and is still treatable. Treat it as soon as possible.
Not always a rash
and not always noticed. My father had gotten Lyme and treated successfully with an early infection, but some of my parents neighbors in Harvard, Bolton, Stowe etc., MA have not. Mature ticks are barely visible, but younger ones are really tiny. Ticks are so bad there that one can hardly do any yard work at all without finding at least one tick on inspection afterwards.
I've wondered if I have Lyme given arthritis, aches, and fatigue, but the Dr's who specialize in treating late stage Lyme mostly seem to be holistic, herbal, kumbaya etc. types and D.O. "doctors" that really makes one doubt the reality of persistent Lyme - if it weren't for the people suffering from it. Anyway, those types of doctors are off putting along with the uncertain testing accuracy to make me bother to try to see one and almost certainly pay out of pocket - another issue for these types of Lyme patients.
No, it has not been
No, it has not been "established" that chronic Lyme does not exist.
I wonder how many of the
I wonder how many of the commenters here who seem to want to debunk chronic Lyme disease have ever suffered from Lyme disease, chronic or not. My bet is that none of them have. I had Lyme disease 2 years in a row and I cannot stress enough how debilitating it was. My treatment worked within a month both times but the symptoms persisted for months afterward. Most medical professionals I consulted stopped just short of outright stating the pain was all in my head. They danced around the issue any conceivable way without calling me nuts and not one did a single thing to help me. I have an acquaintance who suffered from chronic Lyme for years and who only recently began to see any improvement after finally finding a doctor who is Lyme competent. You're buying into a web of lies. If you think it can't happen to you, you better stay indoors the rest of your life. Can people sham it ? Probably. People sham all kinds of things but that isn't proof of its nonexistence is it ? Use common sense. Educate yourself on Lyme and the issues surrounding it before rushing to judgement.
City doctor attitudes
One problem are the know it all attitudes of teaching hospital doctors in cities, where there are not deer and deer ticks everywhere, nor Lyme sufferers. Get out to even near I-495 away from Boston hospitals where the deer ticks are and doctors see patients with Lyme. A percentage of them will have atypical symptoms and persistence.
BTW, Lyme is an old disease. Several years ago, 10,000 year old frozen man was discovered in a glacier in Austria. An autopsy found arthritis in the knees and arteriosclerosis in the approximately 40 yr old man and thus pathologists speculated that he had Lyme disease.