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The Lyme Disease Foundation of Maryland is a public non-profit organization dedicated to improving the understanding and care of patients with persistent symptoms of Lyme Disease.
The Foundation focuses on the long recognized and newly defined group of individuals with post-treatment Lyme syndrome[1]. The goal is to clearly define and understand the cause of disabling symptoms these patients may suffer and improve their diagnosis, treatment, and outcomes.
Lyme disease is the most common tick-borne infection in the United States, with the East Coast reporting the highest number of cases. The threat to Maryland residents continues to rise as they increasingly move from cities to new suburbs and rural areas, where Lyme disease transmission is most frequent. It is known that the principle means of transmission of the disease is a tiny tick that is often carried by wild Virginia whitetail deer, which increasingly roam in suburban areas.
Since 1993, Maryland’s cases reported to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have increased by over 650%! Similar increases have been reported in other high-risk areas on the East Coast. Recent data reported to the CDC show that Maryland ranks seventh in reported cases in the United States. Since the disease continues to be underreported, many health-care professionals believe that the actual number of cases far exceeds the figures reported for Maryland and other areas of the country.
Lyme disease, though now widely familiar, continues to be poorly understood and a source of intense controversy among patients and physicians. When correctly diagnosed, the majority of patients with acute Lyme disease [2] can be successfully treated with a standard course of antibiotics. However, 10% to 20% of patients with acute Lyme disease, after completing the standard course of antibiotic therapy, go on to develop chronic symptoms now identified as post-treatment Lyme syndrome[3]. Moreover, patients who are diagnosed with late-Lyme arthritis are also known to be at risk for developing treatment-resistant symptoms. Treatment-resistant arthritis occurs in approximately 10% of patients after the standard course of antibiotic therapy.
Not all who contact Lyme disease are identified, diagnosed, and treated early, and 10% to 20% of people infected do not show the disease’s diagnostic marker--a bulls-eye or circular rash. Many patients do not recall or recognize a tick bite, and the rash of Lyme disease may also be mistaken for a spider bite or some other irritation. These factors lead to a misdiagnosis that is further compounded when neither the patient nor a health care professional recognizes the nonspecific symptoms of acute Lyme disease. As a result, patients may be treated for other infectious syndromes with common antibiotics such as cephalexin, azithromycin and ciprofloxacin which have suboptimal or no effect against the bacterial agent of Lyme disease[4]. These factors result in an undefined population of patients who have been partially and ineffectively treated and could be at higher risk of developing post-treatment Lyme syndrome.
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