Chronic Lyme disease – does it exist?

Because there are no definitive tests or treatments for this condition, patients who have symptoms can be dismissed by the medical establishment. Many are denied medications such as antibiotics they believe can control the chronic infections they suspect they have.

 How climate change helped Lyme disease invade America

Cases of the tick-borne illness have exploded since the 1990s.

 Lyme disease is set to explode and we still don’t have a vaccine

The best approach would be to vaccinate people at risk – but there is currently no vaccine. We used to have one, but thanks to anti-vaccination activists, that is no longer the case.

 Seem like Lyme disease risk is getting worse? It is.

Rheumatologist, epidemiologist discusses growth, spread of deer ticks, which transmit malady, and offers tips for how to avoid parasites.

 Tests for Lyme Disease Miss Early Cases—but a New Approach Might Help

Standard methods often fail to catch infections during the first month.

 The Lyme Wars: Meet The Players

Whether you know it or not, there has been a fierce battle — called “The Lyme Wars” by everyone from The New Yorker to NPR to Dutch scientific researchers — for at least a decade. Lyme disease arguably is politicized as much as AIDS was when it emerged in the 1980s, and the warriors for the most part fall on one of two sides.

 The Year of the Tick

The little buggers are everywhere right now, and the risk of Lyme disease is high. Here’s how to protect your family.

 What the Media Don’t Tell You About Lyme Disease (But Should)

There’s more to Lyme disease than “check for ticks” and “here are the symptoms” and “ask your doctor.” These talking points are without a doubt primary advisories in the public interest—but this exclusive focus on prevention, which also is the CDC focus, excludes the most devastating aspect of Lyme disease: patients who did get to the doctor, and who despite treatment are failing terribly. These stories are told as medical mysteries from time to time, and as celebrity-survivor stories. But what’s missing in coverage of Lyme is the full picture.

 With a Tick Boom, It’s Not Just Lyme Disease You Have to Fear

Everybody knows about Lyme disease. But experts say the Northern United States may be in for a bad tick season this summer, raising concerns about Lyme and other scary tick-borne diseases, including the Powassan virus, which causes encephalitis and can leave people with permanent neurological damage.

Tick Removal

First, let's state the obvious, ticks are tiny. Household tweezers just aren't the right tool for proper tick removal...

10 Ways To Avoid Tick Bites This Summer

It's summertime, which means outdoor play, hiking, gardening — and tick bites. The creepy crawlies tend to latch on during the summer months and these arachnids are ubiquitous throughout the U.S.

2017 Brings Hope for Lyme Disease Sufferers

Although Lyme disease research is vastly under funded by the United States government compared with other less common and usually less severe infectious diseases such as West Nile, research marches on, and bit by bit it is beginning to unravel many of the mysteries of Lyme disease, which appears to be at least as complex from a pathological standpoint as any known disease to date.

A 'hidden epidemic' in the US has ballooned into a public-health fiasco — and no solutions are in sight

"It's a very controversial subject and few researchers want to talk about it publicly," she says. "Which is unfortunate, because what we really need is to have an open and honest dialogue about PTLDS and Lyme disease generally."

A Natural Cure for Lyme Disease

What’s behind the rise of Lyme? Many wildlife biologists suspect that it is partly driven by an out-of-whack ecosystem. A rapidly growing human population pushing into former wilderness might explain this uptick. Another possibility, though, is that many places we think of as wild — like the Northeastern forests — aren’t as wild as they could be. And degraded ecosystems may harbor more pathogens. The first animals to go are usually the large predators. The last ones standing are often small rodents, bats and their ilk — the very animals that serve as reservoirs of disease. It’s true that large predators can take livestock, eat pets and even occasionally attack people. But, by preventing disease, they may ultimately help far more of us than they harm.

A Real Housewife’s Real Health Scare

Although, the first known cases of Lyme disease date back to 1908 little progress has been made in the years since. We still don’t have a way to quickly and properly diagnose patients, treatment options have remained the same, there is no vaccine, and there is no cure. Because of this patients often go misdiagnosed which wastes crucial time and often leads to additional or more severe complications down the line.

B.C. patient questions accuracy of Lyme disease test used by province

“One of the experts talked about the Lyme disease test only having an accuracy or sensitivity of about 43 per cent, which is absolutely abysmal,” said Gwen Barlee, a director of the Vancouver-based Wilderness Committee. She routinely files Freedom of Information (FOI) applications on environmental issues, but she suffers from Lyme disease and in recent years has made several information requests related to the disease.

Chronic Lyme Disease: Myth or Reality?

Lyme disease, a bacterial infection transmitted by the bite of a deer tick, can cause a variety of flu-like symptoms–achy joints, fatigue, fever, headache. But chronic Lyme disease is a different beast. Experts can't agree on a case definition–or if the condition exists at all. What's clear is that some Lyme patients, even after taking the standard treatment of antibiotics, continue to suffer long-term and often serious health problems, including poor mental function, migratory joint pain, and sleep disturbances.

Clue to What Makes Lyme Bacteria Tick

Laboratory mice infected with the Lyme bacteria, Borrelia burgdorferi, exhibited an unusual immune response that may explain why Lyme disease recurs in some people...

Feel Bad? It Could Be Lyme Unless Proven Otherwise

Do you have symptoms that come and go? Are you on a medication merry go round? Have you been to 10 or 20 doctors without relief? Maybe you've been misdiagnosed.

How a Rock Musician Inspired One Family Dealing With Lyme Disease

Some of Morton's music reflects the mental and physical pain he suffered as he battled for his life. In his song "The Lake," he writes how he contracted Lyme as a teenager during a Fourth of July visit to his uncle's lake cabin...

Is Lyme Disease the New AIDS? What You Need to Know

Everyone should be concerned about Lyme, but perhaps especially anyone who is active outdoors, and anyone who is sexually active -- and that's why this matters to gay men. PrEP is a godsend as a means by which to avoid contracting HIV -- but that's all it does. And evidence now suggests that Lyme may be transmittable not only by tick bite, but through sexual contact.

LOOK: What's Really Inside Your Bug Spray?

The bad news: there's no sure, completely safe way to prevent bug bites. All bug repellents have pros and cons. The good news: some repellents are effective and relatively low in toxicity -- provided you take precautions when using them, particularly on children.

Lyme disease in British Columbia: Are we really missing an epidemic?

There is no evidence to support an epidemic of Lyme disease in BC. Responses to a recent survey indicate that physicians generally are aware of the low but real risk of Lyme disease, know to treat patients with clinical symptoms, and understand that Lyme disease is preventable and treatable. Public health authorities will continue to remind residents and visitors to BC of the simple measures they can take to prevent tick bites and ex­posure, as well as which early signs and symptoms should lead them to seek appropriate medical treatment.

Lyme Disease Is Spreading In Canada, And Physicians Are Crucial In Helping Minimize Its Impact

"Lyme disease is emerging in Canada, and effective, enhanced surveillance needs to be instigated, and physician awareness of Lyme disease will be crucial to minimizing the impact of the disease," write Dr. Nicholas Ogden from the Public Health Agency of Canada and coauthors.

My Salt Spring Island Tick Project

Ticks as a group are able to transmit a number of diseases, Lyme disease (LD) being the one best known in North America. The most common tick species on Salt Spring (Ixodes pacificus) is a potential transmitter of LD (most tick species are not).

New Tricks for Removing Ticks & Avoiding RMSF & Lyme Disease

Many of us feel it’s best to inject Lidocaine under the tick using a small bore insulin style syringe/needle, then pull it out.

Once Upon a Lyme: Starting the Conversation About Lyme Disease

Lyme Disease has grown to epidemic proportions with more than 300,000 new cases annually in the U.S. alone. Because it is difficult to diagnose and blood tests are unreliable, the disease has yet to become as well known as others on the autoimmune spectrum, and despite the staggering number of newly infected cases each year, Lyme Disease has one of the lowest amounts of funding. Spreading the word begins with one conversation, or in this case, watching a whimsical cartoon about how to prevent Lyme disease.

Psychosocial Issues of Lyme Disease

One of the biggest problems with Lyme disease is that it can render the victim completely helpless and unable to work or take care of the family. The disease can mimic other diseases in combination such as Lou Gehrig's disease, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, polymyalgia rheumatica, fibromyalgia syndrome, psoriatic arthritis, Alzheimer's and lupus. It is painful and causes debilitating fatigue and weakness to the point of paralysis at times. It can cause seizures and Bell's palsy, meningitis and encephalitis. It can cause bone pain and joint pain so severe that it can be frightening.

Symptoms of Lyme disease: why the disease is so hard to diagnose

Many people do not develop the hallmark signs of Lyme, and that can make infections difficult to diagnose.

The Confusing, Controversial World of Lyme Disease

Lyme is tricky to diagnose and the symptoms can linger for months or years even after treatment, and doctors disagree with each other and activists on the basic facts of the disease. That makes it hard on those who have it.

The controversy over the chronic form of Lyme disease

Lyme disease is increasing in the UK. But there is huge controversy over the existence of a chronic form of the disease that resists treatment.

The Global Search for Education: Canada - Ticks

Physicians in Canada are very afraid to diagnose Lyme disease because they all have heard that any doctor who has become known to be Lyme literate has either had to return their medical license or stop seeing Lyme patients altogether. Physicians coast to coast tell patients to leave the country to get proper diagnosis and treatment.

The Mystery of Chronic Lyme Disease

Some patients continue to have severe symptoms for years, and experts are divided on the cause.

The New York Times Teaches the Controversy

Both sides are not equal when it comes to chronic Lyme disease.

The ‘Swiss Agent’: Long-forgotten research unearths new mystery about Lyme disease

While the evidence is hardly conclusive, patients and doctors might be mistaking under-the-radar Swiss Agent infections for Lyme, the infectious disease specialists said. Or the bacteria could be co-infecting some Lyme patients, exacerbating symptoms and complicating their treatment — and even stoking a bitter debate about whether Lyme often becomes a persistent and serious illness.

This Is What Lyme Disease Feels Like

It's a beautiful day -- stunning actually -- but I've been lying in bed since one in the afternoon. I's now almost six and I've wasted yet another day thanks to Lyme disease.

Tick Season: Scary New Stats And Five Smart Tips (Spray Your Shoes)

Fine. I’m a nag. I tell you the same thing over and over for your own good. But only once a year, and now is the time: Caution. Especially if you live in the Northeast, Midwest or mid-Atlantic. Watch out for the deer ticks that carry Lyme and other diseases.

Tick-ing Time Bomb? Why Protection Against Parasites is Essential for People and Pets

Here in the Northeast, checking for ticks after a walk in the woods is fairly commonplace, mostly because of the prevalence of Lyme disease -- a potentially debilitating disease spread to humans by the nefarious deer tick. If you live in the Northeast and you have pets, checking for ticks isn't just commonplace -- it's second nature.

Ticked Off--What We Don't Know About Lyme Disease

I didn’t see the tiny danger lurking in my own yard. Yet for Lyme disease awareness month, just ended, it seems I am learning experientially. I’ve had Lyme at least once before, and found three attached deer ticks on me just in 10 days. I may have had Lyme a second time, last year, but diagnostic tests are so poor that we don’t know. Here’s some of what I learned from my experience and for caring for others in my infectious disease practice.

When Lyme Disease Lasts and Lasts

Chronic Lyme disease is a highly controversial catch-all term for a host of long-lasting symptoms that may or may not stem from prior infection with the bacterium that causes acute Lyme disease. Often misdiagnosed and mistreated, chronic Lyme disease leaves thousands of people physically and mentally debilitated and without a medically established recourse.

Tick-borne illnesses

Don't delay empiric doxycycline 100 mg BID IV/PO. Doxycycline covers all tick borne critical illness, except for babesiosis.

The incredibly frustrating reason there’s no Lyme disease vaccine

Lyme can be treated with antibiotics. And there are many ways to prevent tick bites. But there’s no vaccine available if you want extra protection against the disease (unless you’re a dog).