Lyme Disease

A long personal struggle with Lyme disease prompted me to review the current literature to better understand what remains elusive to researchers and physicians. Lyme disease was first discovered in Connecticut in the mid-1970’s, however, in Europe, it was already being treated with antibiotics. The disease is caused by a spirochete bacteria named Borrelia burgdorferi after the scientist who married the European syndromes associated with the microbe to the disease found in the United States. Borrelia burgdorferi is capable of evading the immune system through a variety of methods, some of which are still not clearly understood. Treatment for Lyme disease is effective and involves antibiotics over a variable duration depending on the presentation of the disease. Post-treatment Lyme Disease Syndrome (PTLDS) is the heart of the controversy surrounding this disease as patients continue to have debilitating symptoms with no clear cause.