Lyme Disease

Lyme Disease explores the scope of infection in the United States and the clinical approaches to treating it. This section covers disease estimates and surveillance, as well as the evidence and disagreements that shape treatment guidelines.

In this section

  • Scale — 476,000 estimated US cases per year, and why the number is almost certainly low — Walks the gap between reported Lyme cases and estimated cases. Covers the 476,000-per-year CDC estimate, the surveillance case definition that drives the undercount, how insurance-claims studies produced the newer figure, state-level concentration, European comparisons, and the long historical trend in reported cases.

  • Lyme Treatment Guidelines — What They Say, Where They're Contested — Summarizes the 2020 IDSA/AAN/ACR Lyme disease guideline alongside the ILADS counter-position and the federal record that documents the disagreement. Covers antibiotic regimens for erythema migrans, neurologic disease, carditis, and arthritis; the recommendation against retreatment for persistent nonspecific symptoms; the NIH-funded retreatment trials the two camps read differently; and the access-to-care consequences for patients whose symptoms outlast a standard course.

  • Tick Bite Symptom Timeline — what a newly bitten person should watch for in the weeks after a bite, not the full disease picture; this article covers full clinical description of Lyme disease symptoms and progression

  • Living with Lyme and PTLDS — the lived experience and scientific landscape of post-treatment symptoms; this article covers clinical description of Lyme disease as a disease entity, including diagnosis and standard treatment

  • Southern Tick-Associated Rash Illness — produces an expanding rash clinically indistinguishable from Lyme's erythema migrans but has an unknown causative agent and different vector; this article covers Lyme disease as a full disease entity, including its known pathogen, diagnosis, and standard treatment

  • Co-infections — a single tick bite can transmit Borrelia alongside other pathogens simultaneously, complicating diagnosis and treatment; this article covers Lyme disease as a standalone disease entity

    Not medical advice. See a healthcare provider for medical decisions. Medical Disclaimer