BACKGROUND The risk of acquiring Lyme disease is high in areas in which the disease is endemic, and the development of a safe and effective vaccine is therefore important. METHODS We conducted a multicenter, double-blind, randomized trial involving 10,936 subjects who lived in areas of the United States in which Lyme disease is endemic. Participants received an injection of either recombinant...

Lyme disease is an infectious disease transmitted by ticks, and distributed in North America and across a wide area of Eurasia. It is considered one of the major emerging diseases from a public health perspective. An outbreak of Lyme disease was first reported in the United States in the 1970s. The presence of Borrelia burgdorferi, its causative organism, in the skin results in the development ...

Hofhuis et al. performed a broad survey on physicianreported incidence of different Lyme disease associated manifestations [5], of which the results on Lyme carditis are presented in this issue of the Netherlands Heart Journal [6]. The authors leveraged the fact that every person in the Netherlands is registered with only one general practitioner (GP). In daily practice, a GP consultation is re...

The current standard for laboratory diagnosis of Lyme disease in the United States is serologic detection of antibodies against Borrelia burgdorferi. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends a two-tiered testing algorithm; however, this scheme has limited sensitivity for detecting early Lyme disease. Thus, there is a need to improve diagnostics for Lyme disease at the early sta...

For the diagnosis of Lyme disease, the 2-tier serologic testing protocol for Lyme disease has a number of shortcomings including low sensitivity in early disease; increased cost, time, and labor; and subjectivity in the interpretation of immunoblots. In this study, the diagnostic accuracy of a single-tier commercial C6 ELISA kit was compared with 2-tier testing. The results showed that the C6 E...

Genetic studies were performed on the following spirochetes: three Lyme disease spirochetes isolated from Ixodes ticks and from human spinal fluid; three species of North American borreliae; four species of Treponema; and two species of Leptospira. The mol% G+C values for Lyme disease spirochetes were 27.3 to 30.5%, similar to values of 28.0 to 30.5% for Borrelia species but different from the ...

In the United States, the incidence of Lyme disease is considered to be disproportionately high among Whites because of risk of exposure. For assessment of racial differences in Lyme disease incidence and the role of risk exposure, incidence rate ratios (IRRs) for Lyme disease and its manifestations between Whites and African Americans in Maryland and in its focus of endemicity, the Upper Easte...

Lyme disease is an emerging new spirochaetal disease in which ocular complications may arise. We have seen a 45-year-old woman who developed unilateral endophthalmitis leading to blindness during the course of this disease. Ocular tissue showed the characteristic spirochete. A literature review shows that the commonest ocular manifestation of Lyme disease is a mild conjunctivitis, but other sym...

There is controversy regarding the nature and degree of intellectual and memory deficits in chronic Lyme disease. In this study, 81 participants with rigorously diagnosed chronic Lyme disease were administered the newest revisions of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS-III) and Wechsler Memory Scale (WMS-III), and compared to 39 nonpatients. On the WAIS-III, Lyme disease participants ha...

Borrelia burgdorferi is highly susceptible to antibiotic treatment and the majority of patients profit from this treatment. Antibiotic selection, dose and route of administration, and duration of therapy for Lyme disease depend on the patient’s clinical manifestations and stage of disease, age, pregnancy status, as well as the presence of other concomitant diseases and/or allergies. Despite an ...