Long Term Antibiotic Treatment Of Persistent Symptoms Attributed Lyme Disease

Lyme disease was discovered in the 1970’s, as any other disease was, by a large number of cases, with patients having the same symptoms. In Lyme, Connecticut, a doctor was having patients who were all suffering from the same symptoms that made patients become debilitated. There were so many cases that the doctor marked it as an unknown disease. It wasn’t until later in the 1980’s that there were more widespread cases throughout the north-east. Lyme disease is becoming a serious problem in the north-east and especially in New York State, given the drastic increase of cases. Without treatment Lyme disease can result in blindness and in severe cases, death.

Treat the gut first. Many people with chronic Lyme disease have gut dysbiosis (an imbalance in the good gut flora). A high quality, potent probiotic is a good first step.

Chronic Lyme disease isn't the only medical issues that Lacey Miller has. Lacey Miller has arthritis, dementia, loss of vision, seizures and many other medical problems. Lacey is currently unemployed and bedridden. Lacey doesn't let chronic Lyme disease let get her depressed, however. Lacey is a loving mother and wife that spends time with her family making them laugh and smile.

The threat of Lyme disease is an ever growing concern especially due to the fact that late stage Lyme has no cure and early stages are hard to diagnose. The

Chronic Lyme disease specialists’ asserts that for some the Borrelia bacteria has become more prevalent. “If untreated, infection can spread to the joints, heart and nervous system, causing a large variety of symptoms which may persist over months or years” (Melisa) Additionally, when the bacteria is able to spread like this, according to medical officials that agree with Chronic Lyme diseases existence, if left untreated bacterial persistence can occur. When this happens treating the bacteria becomes a much harder and longer process. This viewpoint however is so divisive because the body that decides medical treatment of diseases of this class, the Infectious Disease Society of America, claims that Chronic Lyme doesn’t exist. Today many doctors shy away from the topic as those who support the existence of Chronic Lyme and try to treat patients risk losing the medical license. While this argument is riddled with claims of conflict of interest and fear mongering I believe taking care of the patient’s well being is paramount and that more care should be allotted to Chronic Lyme by American medicine as evidence points to the existence of Chronic Lyme.

To help increase the awareness of people towards Lyme Disease, I produced a Facebook page. I regularly updated this page with general information regarding the disease and tried to reach a large number of people who could learn from what I was sharing or writing regarding the project. The Facebook page also included a link to the online survey.

This method is irrespective of the stage of the infection. Current research suggests that a single course of antibiotics can be insufficient, especially if Lyme disease has been prevalent for several months (Magnotta, 2015).

Lyme disease, a common illness prevalent in the United States and Canada, is a bacterial infection caused by the bite of a “deer tick” (WebMD, 2012). A “deer tick” or Ixodes dammini, frequently carries the bacteria Borrelia burgdorferi which causes Lyme disease (American Journal of Public Health, 1992). “Deer ticks” infected with this disease spread the bacteria through a bite which allows it to enter the blood stream of the host. Patients with Lyme disease often have a history of tick exposure, rash, or arthralgias.

bodily functions, especially in the nervous system (1). It occurs because of the effect of bacterial infection, a Borrelia burgdorferi bacteria, which is blood-borne to a person by infectious ticks (1). The disease is more common in North America and Europe, especially in wilderness areas and grassland (1). Lyme disease is classified into phases according to the speed and the extent of the infection in the body. Early diagnosis and treatment prevent the patient from reaching the late phase, so it is important to be aware of the two phases of Lyme disease, which are the early disease phase that has two stages, and the late disease phase.

For this assignment, I interviewed a close friend, Dana Rivard. Dana is also a first year student; she is from Massachusetts and majoring in Health Sciences. In a friendly conversation, a few weeks ago she mentioned having Lyme disease. I grew up in a rural part of Indiana so my childhood consisted of playing outside almost everyday. My front yard is full of trees, and because I live in a very forested area right across from a corn field, these trees often have ticks. My parents always warned us to be cautious of ticks by using insect repellant and making sure we were wearing long clothing if we were going to be close to the trees. Our dogs would often get a tick here or there that my parents would have to pull off, but only once or twice do I remember one of my siblings or cousins getting a tick on them. My parents and grandparents always warned us about Lyme disease, because it was such a prevalent topic in Indiana. As a child, it seemed as if my parents were overreacting, which is why it was so interesting to see that Dana had gotten Lyme disease.

Lyme disease is an illness that spread through spirochetes thereby affecting the patient’s nervous system, brain, joints, muscle and heart among other body parts if left untreated. According to AHN USA, Lyme is one of the most serious epidemics of this age. Since 1991, the number of people suffering from this serious multi-system inflammatory disease in the USA has doubled. This figure is backed by CDC statistics that show over 320,000 new cases of the disease are reported every year. In spite of the rising cases treating Lyme disease has proven difficult because to be difficult because of underreporting and inaccurate test.

Treatment of Lyme disease includes Doxycycline, Amoxicillin or and alternative such as Ceftriaxone. Treatment with doxycycline or amoxicillin-or an alternative should be about 20-30 days. Early symptoms should be relieved to resolve skin lesions with these medications. Doxycycline is most effective than amoxicillin in preventing late manifestations. Nearly 50% of patients treated with doxycycline or amoxicillin early during Lyme disease develop minor late complications such as headache, joint pain, etc. Long-standing Lyme arthritis can be treated with doxycycline or amoxicillin plus probenecid for 30 days or longer. (Gasmi, S., Odgen, N., Leighton, P., Adam-Poupart, A., Milord, F., Lindsay, L., Barkati, S., Thivierge,

My mom has been suffering the symptoms of Lyme disease for well over two years now, but was only recently diagnosed this month. Her symptoms began with a general sense of fatigue and an overall sense of pain and aches throughout her body. Over time, her health continued to deteriorate and her unknown illness developed into something significantly more debilitating. Some days, she endured such extreme fatigue and pain that she could not manage to get out of bed. I then noticed that her memory and cognitive abilities began to decline. She experienced trouble remembering simple phrases and conversations I had with her, to the point that she couldn't repeat a number I had just given to her seconds before. For over two years she attended countless

Statistics obtained from the Center of Disease Control and Prevention show that there are approximately 30,000 cases of Lyme Disease reported in the United States annually (CDC, 2015). The above data categorizes Lyme Disease as the number one animal carried and vector-borne disease. Vector is a term used to describe a living organism able to carry and spread an infectious disease from either animal to human or human to human (WHO, 2016). Surprisingly, it was not until 1982 that the CDC placed Lyme as an official disease category. Even though the awareness of the Lyme disease increased throughout the years, many people are still unaware of the symptoms, transmission methods as well as the underlying cause of the disease (Yannielli & Alcamo, 2004).

1. Table 8.1 shows results of an eight-center clinical trial to compare a drug to placebo for curing an infection. At each center, subjects were randomly assigned to two groups.