A study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ Open) indicates that the treatments given to people with Lyme disease work very well. With cases increasing steadily in recent years, particularly in the Eastern Townships and Montérégie, this reassuring news should encourage people to seek medical attention as soon as possible after being bitten in order to avoid complications of the disease, says the study's lead author, Dr. Alex Carignan, a professor-researcher at the University of Sherbrooke and a specialist in microbiology and infectious diseases at the CIUSSS de l'Estrie-CHUS

In this study, which took place between 2004 and 2017, 99% of 272 patients diagnosed with Lyme disease had resolution of their symptoms following antibiotic treatment administered according to Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) recommendations.

In these subjects, objective signs of Lyme disease, such as facial paralysis (Bell's palsy), cardiac arrhythmia, meningitis, and inflammation of a joint, disappeared after treatment. However, "some of the more subjective symptoms, such as fatigue, sleep and concentration problems, [diffuse musculoskeletal pain, tingling and numbness], persisted in about 10% of these patients who had been treated," Dr. Carignan adds.

"We can say that the management of Lyme disease in Quebec is adequate and comparable to that provided in renowned hospitals, such as the Mayo Clinic and Harvard," says the researcher, who concedes, however, that improvements are still needed.

People with the initial, localized form of the disease - a skin lesion (specifically, an isolated erythema migrans) that usually appears one to two weeks after the bite - may begin antibiotic treatment even before undergoing diagnostic testing, he says.

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Merci 

Christine