Lyme disease is an infectious disease caused by bacteria of the Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato complex, transmitted to humans by the bite of an infected tick. This disease evolves in 3 phases : the primary phase of local diffusion of the bacterium, the secondary phase of focusing
tissue and the tertiary phase where inflammatory and dysimmune phenomena can occur. Antibiotic therapy in the primary phase results in a rapid and definitive cure.
While the clinical efficacy of the treatment is slower in the secondary phase and in the tertiary phase.
While many patients with this disease are beginning to mobilize for denounce diagnostic error which they had to face, the Academy of Medicine denounces in a press release the “Lyme disease deceptions” and points out that some assertions have no scientific basis.
Refusing the diagnosis of “chronic Lyme disease” linked to the persistence of the pathogen
in the body, the Academy asserts that this diagnosis “rests on the assumption not scientifically
demonstrated of a “crypto-infection” serving to justify the use of prolonged antibiotic treatments”.
“The attribution of ill-defined, subjective symptoms (fatigue, cramps, muscle aches, tinnitus, sleep or mood disturbances, memory loss) to this ‘chronic Lyme disease’ is not based on any evidence” adds the Academy. She calls the doctors “not to feed the anguish of disoriented patients by dangling the diagnosis of “chronic Lyme disease” and invites the public authorities to be attentive to this drift”.
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