Lyme disease, also called Lyme borreliosis, is caused by a bacterium called Borrelia burgdorferi, which is transmitted to humans through the bite of a tick. Antibiotics can treat the disease when the diagnosis is made in time. But symptoms can persist for years: chronic fatigue, neuromuscular pain, paralysis…
Since these symptoms are common to other diseases such as fibromyalgia, Hashimoto’s thyroid syndrome, lupus or multiple sclerosis, Lyme disease is underdiagnosed.
“The bacterium in question is very poorly known because very little studied. And it often escapes current blood screening tests” explains the association of patients Lyme Without Borders.
Lyme disease: sexually transmitted?
For this association, which demonstrated this afternoon in front of the Ministry of Health, in Paris: “This infection is the subject of a real denial on the part of the health authorities, which leaves patients without appropriate care, in prey to great physical, psychological, social and professional distress”. The association would like, among other things, that doctors “take the measure of the risk incurred during transfusion exchanges or during sexual relations, or that incurred by the child in utero when the mother is infected with this infection”.
Indeed, according to a study presented last January in The Journal of Investigative MedicineLyme disease is also transmitted sexually. The researchers found that women with Lyme disease had positive vaginal fluids for the infection, and half of the men with the disease were also positive in seminal fluid. Furthermore, the presence of identical strains in the secretions of married couples having unprotected intercourse strongly suggests that there is sexual transmission.
The Center for Disease Control (the American Institute for Public Health) also thinks that there would be 10 times more patients infected without knowing it because of this possible sexual transmission.
