Lyme Disease Research

Lyme Disease Research

Lyme disease is also known as borreliosis. It is what is considered a multi symptom disease that is caused by one of three species of Borrelia bacteria. The most common one found in most patients is the Borrelia bergdorferi sensu stricto strain.

The disease is named for the town in Connecticut that had an outbreak in 1975 of a previously unknown disease. It took until 1978 for the carrier of the disease to be identified (Deer ticks) and it was not until 1982 that the bacteria were isolated and specific treatments could be devised.

The problem with Lyme Disease Research is that researchers and physicians are split as to whether Lyme disease is really a separate disease or several symptoms brought on by an auto immune disorder triggered by the bacteria.

These competing schools of thought are also competing for research dollars to come up with a cure and instead of cooperating they are trying to cut each others throats for the grant money.

The two most common tests currently used to detect Lyme disease are Western blot and ELISA which both use the body’s response or lack of one to antibodies introduced into the test subject’s system. Most agree that these tests are only accurate between thirty and forty percent of the time.

While the CDC requires a positive test for reporting purposes they caution that its own surveillance criteria should not be used to make a diagnosis but that the individual doctor should evaluate the patient’s system and use the test results as additional evidence.

Definitive Lyme disease research is lacking and more cases go unreported until they become chronic than are caught early enough to be handled by antibiotics.

The current short term IV antibiotic treatments were designed by Yale researchers who refuse to acknowledge any other treatments that have promise that were not proposed by their faculty.