Infectious Diseases

Treating Lyme Disease

Summary & Participants

If you are infected with Lyme disease, early treatment is crucial for preventing permanent damage. How are the symptoms and complications of Lyme disease treated? Join our panel of experts as they discuss treatment strategies for this increasingly common disease.

Medically Reviewed On: July 21, 2008

Webcast Transcript

ALEX McMEEKING, MD: That's a good question. Other than antibiotics there's not an awful lot to do. As Brent alluded to, you may sometimes go to longer courses. This is still something of a gray area. Classically, most people would treat, again for 14 to 21 days with intravenous antibiotics. I have seen situations personally and read of situations where people needed more prolonged therapy to cure their neurologic disease.

DAVID FOLK THOMAS: Brent, is Lyme disease, then curable? Do you get it removed immediately, or is it always with you?

BRENT WISE, MD: It also really depends on how early you catch it. The good news is that there is excellent data to show that even most patients who have late stage disease with some of these chronic manifestations are in fact cured with antibiotics. So there is a very high cure rate with both the early and the late stage infections.

DAVID FOLK THOMAS: Alex, I've heard about something called the lumbar puncture. Am I pronouncing that right?

ALEX McMEEKING, MD: That's correct.

DAVID FOLK THOMAS: What's that about?

ALEX McMEEKING, MD: It's commonly also known as a spinal tap. What it involves is -- a way of diagnosing if somebody has Lyme disease in their central nervous is to take out some spinal fluid from the base of their spine. It's actually quite a safe procedure. The only thing it can cause is a bad headache afterwards. They take out the spinal fluid, they look under the microscope for white blood cells, they measure for elevations in chemicals such as protein, which is often increased, and you can also actually measure through something called a polymerase chain reaction, which is a newer test for the actual bacteria that causes Lyme disease.

DAVID FOLK THOMAS: So is the bottom line with Lyme disease that you need to catch it as early as possible so you don't develop those later symptoms?

ALEX McMEEKING, MD: That's the thing. The earlier you can make a diagnosis and treat somebody, the less likely you're going to get chronic manifestations of Lyme disease. Absolutely.

DAVID FOLK THOMAS: All right, that's all the time we have. We've been discussing treating Lyme disease, and of course -- I guess I'm not saying anything new -- the best treatment would be try not to get it in the first place. But if you're aren't lucky enough, we hope you've learned something here today.

My name's David Folk Thomas. We'll see you next time.

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