A 34-year-old member asked:
how can you get treated for lyme disease early when it's so hard to diagnose?
1 doctor answer • 4 doctors weighed in
Dr. Martin Raff answered
Infectious Disease 56 years experience
Not hard to diagnose: Most patients with lyme disease display the characteristic rash and associated symptoms, which makes presumptive diagnosis easy. If one tries to diagnose it using antibody testing you might wait too long to treat effectively. If you are in an area where this is common, have symptoms compatible with lyme you should be treated presumptively. May cause your antibody reactions to remain negative.
5932 viewsReviewed >2 years ago
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Similar questions
A 32-year-old member asked:
How doyou feel in early stages of Lyme disease?
1 doctor answer • 1 doctor weighed in
Dr. Martin Raff answered
Infectious Disease 56 years experience
Not well: Lyme disease presents early with a classic rash which is an expanding circle of redness clearing in the center. There may be fever, chills, malaise, headache, stiff neck, and involvement of joints (arthritis), the heart, and the nervous system may all follow. It is due to a spiral bacteria transmitted by deer ticks (borellia burgdorfii), and should be treated aggressively to prevent long illness.
5940 viewsAnswered >2 years ago
A 35-year-old member asked:
What are the tests for Lyme (early)?
1 doctor answer • 1 doctor weighed in
Dr. Joseph Woods answered
Pathology 28 years experience
ELISA/West blot.: The 2 main best tests, early or late, are elisa and western blot. Elisa or serology is used for screening for an antibody response to the b. Burgdorferi spirochete responsible for the disease, while the western blot is a specific test that makes sure the positive response is not a false positive, or a reaction to something else. Pcr, or polymerase chain reaction is another possible test.
5824 viewsAnswered >2 years ago
A 41-year-old member asked:
What is the treatment for Lyme disease (early)?
2 doctor answers • 3 doctors weighed in
Dr. Joseph Woods answered
Pathology 28 years experience
Oral antibiotics.: The treatment for this is apparently oral antibiotics. For those >=12 and not pregnant, Doxycycline 100mg 2x/day is the first choice, while those <12 get amoxacillin 50mg/kg/day. Amoxaciliin 500 mg 3x/day is the second choice for adults. The 3rd and 4th choices for all ages are Cefuroxime axetil 500 mg 2x/day and Erythromycin 250 mg 4x/day respectively.
5824 viewsReviewed >2 years ago
A 41-year-old member asked:
Can Lyme disease symptoms recur even when it is caught early?
1 doctor answer • 1 doctor weighed in
Dr. Ronald Krauser answered
Rheumatology 52 years experience
No: If it effectively treated early in the disease course, recurrence of symptoms is more likely to be a new infection than the same previous bout.
5192 viewsAnswered >2 years ago
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Last updated Aug 10, 2014
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