Using antibiotics appropriately, your health care provider may effectively treat your Lyme disease. In general, the sooner you begin treatment following infection, the better. Antibiotics such as doxycycline, defuroxime axetil, or amoxicillin, taken orally for a few weeks, may speed the healing of the EM rash and may prevent subsequent symptoms such as arthritis or neurologic problems. Doxycycline also may effectively treat most other tick borne diseases. When Lyme disease occurs in children younger than 9 years, or in pregnant or breast-feeding women, they may be treated with amoxicillin, cefuroxime axetil, or penicillin because doxycycline may stain the permanent teeth developing in young children or unborn babies.
If you have Lyme arthritis, your health care provider may treat you with oral antibiotics. If your arthritis is severe, you may be given ceftriaxone or penicillin intravenously (through a vein). To ease discomfort and to further healing, your health care provider might also give you anti-inflammatory drugs, draw fluid from your affected joints, or surgically remove the inflamed lining of those joints.
Some people with Lyme disease who go untreated for several years may be cured of their arthritis with the proper antibiotic treatment. If the disease has persisted long enough, however, it may permanently damage the structure of the joints.
If you have neurologic symptoms, your health care provider will probably treat you with the antibiotic ceftriaxone given intravenously once a day for a month or less. Health care providers usually prefer to treat people with Lyme disease who have heart symptoms with antibiotics such as ceftriaxone or penicillin given intravenously for approximately 2 weeks.
Following treatment for Lyme disease, you might still have muscle achiness, neurologic symptoms such as problems with memory and concentration, and fatigue.
NIH-sponsored researchers are conducting studies to determine the cause of these symptoms and how to best treat them. Studies suggest that people who suffer from chronic Lyme disease may be genetically predisposed to develop an autoimmune response that contributes to their symptoms. Researchers are also conducting studies to find out the best length of time to give antibiotics for the various signs and symptoms of Lyme disease. Unfortunately, a bout with Lyme disease is no guarantee that the illness will not return. The disease can strike more than once if you are reinfected with Lyme disease bacteria.
Column Posted on Web Site December 28, 2009
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