1 million people are predicted to get infected with Lyme disease in the USA in 2018. Given the same incidence rate of Lyme disease in Europe as in the USA, then 2.4 million people will get infected with Lyme disease in Europe in 2018. In the USA by 2050, 55.7 million people (12% of the population) will have been infected with Lyme disease. In Europe by 2050, 134.9 million people (17% of the pop...

Lyme disease caused by the spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi has become a major worldwide epidemic. In this article, we explore the clinical, epidemiological and experimental evidence for sexual transmission of Lyme disease in animal models and humans. Although the likelihood of sexual transmission of the Lyme spirochete remains speculative, the possibility of Lyme disease transmission via intima...

BACKGROUND  Much of the controversy that surrounds Lyme disease pertains to whether it produces prolonged, treatment-refractory infection, usually referred to as chronic Lyme disease. Some have proposed that round morphologic variants of Borrelia burgdorferi, known variably as "cyst forms" and "L-forms," are responsible for the pathogenesis of chronic Lyme disease. We have undertaken a systemat...

Topic Overview: How should a clinician employ serologic tests in a Lyme disease evaluation? Before ordering an ELISA or Western blot the clinician should develop a clinical impression of the patient, taking into account the exposure history, symptoms and exam findings. If Lyme disease is judged to be a diagnostic possibility then testing is reasonable. Neither ELISA nor Western blot testing is ...

Although adults with late stage posttreatment Lyme disease often experience difficulties in memory, little is known about the relationship between cognition and Lyme disease in children and adolescents. Twenty-five adolescents with late stage posttreatment Lyme disease (symptoms > 6 months) and 25 participants without Lyme disease (matched on gender, IQ, age, socioeconomic status) were assessed...

Lyme disease due to infection with Lyme borreliosis poses an uncertain dynamic threat to the Dutch and their public health system. This risk was used to develop and illustrate two variants of a National Risk Assessment approaches for slumbering/latent risks. This paper explains and illustrates the System Dynamics-based variant using the societal risk posed by Lyme disease. Thousands of plausibl...

Lyme disease is a tick-borne multisystem disease that affects primarily the skin, nervous system, heart and joints. At least three species of Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato, namely Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto, Borrelia garinii, and Borrelia afzelii, can cause the disease. This review will focus mainly on the pathophysiology of Lyme arthritis, the long-term outcome of Lyme disease, and t...

Contrary to what was said at the Environment Committee hearing on March 22nd, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) do not recommend hunting to control Lyme disease. If one scours the CDC web pages on Lyme disease, many recommendations are given about how to prevent Lyme disease, but there is no mention of hunting in the CDC web page text, nor any recommendation for hunting 1 . See http://www.c...

Lyme disease represents a growing public health threat. The controversial science and politics of Lyme disease have created barriers to reliable diagnosis and effective treatment of this protean illness. Two major clinical hurdles are the absence of a therapeutic end point in treating Borrelia burgdorferi, the spirochetal agent of Lyme disease, and the presence of tickborne coinfections with or...

Lyme disease is the most commonly transmitted vector-borne disease in the United States, with many regions of the country at risk. Like other spirochete-borne infections, Lyme disease progresses in stages, making diagnosis in the early stages of the illness and prompt treatment important for cure. An early diagnosis is made difficult by the less-than-ideal serologic tests and the varied clinica...