Friday, December 7, 2012

Repeat Lyme Is Reinfection, Not Relapse | Redux

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Repeat Lyme Is Reinfection, Not Relapse

Excerpt:

All patients successfully treated for Lyme disease with antibiotics who then had another episode of erythema migrans -- the hallmark rash often described as a "bull's-eye" welt -- had a reinfection rather than a relapse, a small study found. In 17 patients who suffered a total of 22 pairs of sequential episodes of erythema migrans, the hallmark lesion marking acute infection with the tick-borne Lyme parasite, Borrelia burgdorferi, genetic tests revealed that in every case that the second infections were with a different strain of the organism than the first, according to Dr. Robert Nadelman of New York Medical College in Valhalla, N.Y., and colleagues. The patients had received antibiotic treatment after their initial infections, with tests confirming that the parasite had been eliminated. But controversy remains over whether B. burgdorferi can persist undetected after treatment, leading to reemergence of symptoms later on.

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Dr. Robert Nadelman

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HealthCondition: erythema migrans

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HealthCondition: rash

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