Lyme disease (or “Lyme borreliosis” in medical language) is a bacterial infection that can occur after a tick bite, when the tick carries the bacteria Borrelia burgdorferi. About 50,000 cases are diagnosed each year in France.
Currently, Lyme disease is treated exclusively with antibiotic therapy: very concretely, the general practitioner prescribes an antibiotic drug (doxycycline or amoxicillin) for 14 days. “In general, the response to treatment is excellent, with rapid and complete disappearance of erythema migrans between 1 week and 1 month after the start of antibiotic therapy.” specifies the High Authority for Health (HAS).
If symptoms persist, health authorities recommend “ensure patient compliance with treatment” and of “discuss a differential diagnosis“…
In the long term, Lyme disease would harm cognitive abilities
Yes, but here it is: for many years, some doctors and associations have argued that Lyme borreliosis could be a chronic disease. And a new study, carried out by the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee (in the United States), tends to go in their direction.
For 7 years, American researchers followed 1110 volunteers diagnosed with Lyme disease and aged 41 on average. During the observation period, the participants took 3 tests aimed at assessing their cognitive abilities (memory, logical reasoning, ability to perform everyday tasks) and were regularly asked to complete questionnaires concerning their symptoms (headaches, abnormal fatigue, sleep problem, etc.).
Result ? Scientists found that after 7 years, participants had lost between 23% and 29% of their cognitive abilities. “These figures support the idea that Lyme disease should be recognized as a chronic pathology in order to better organize support for patients and enable them to maintain their abilities despite their symptoms.“analyze the American researchers.
Source : Neurology
