Chronic Lyme Disease: The Controversy and The Solution

Chronic Lyme Disease: The Controversy and the Solution

Ziwei (Judy) Hao

STS.005 Final Paper

Fall 2009

Lyme disease, also known as borreliosis, is currently the fastest emerging infectious disease in the United States (Barbour 3). It is caused by a bacterial infection transmitted through tick bites, marked by the characteristic red, bull’s-eye. Initial symptoms include fevers, headaches, and muscle and joint pains. If left untreated, the infection may cause arthritis, heart problems, and neurological degeneration. Currently, the most widely used treatment is antibiotics, which eliminates the bacteria from the body (Barbour 10). For a disease that seems easy to treat and prevent, Lyme disease has generated more controversy that any other similar infectious diseases.

Over the past few decades, medical professionals have debated the existence of chronic Lyme disease, the precision of current diagnostic techniques, and the effectiveness of treatments for long-term symptoms (Feder 1423). While most reports indicate that most patients who receive immediate treatment recover within a month or two, a good proportion shows that a third of the patients suffers from prolonged, more severe symptoms (Baker 563). These patients are becoming increasingly disgruntled towards the lack of effort from the medical community to reduce their sufferings. In order to find potential solutions, one must analyze the history of Lyme disease, the shortcomings of diagnosis and treatments, and specific cases that led to the controversy.

Before the development of germ theory, people had no knowledge of the existence of Lyme disease. The first case related to Lyme disease was recorded in 1883 by Alfred Buchwald. Not knowing the microscopic cause, Buchwald mistook the typical bull’s-eye rash to be a degenerative skin disorder, now known as acrodermatitis chronica atorphicans (Barbour 20). Lyme disease was not made apparent until 1975, when the Connecticut State Health Department received complaints from a mother living in Lyme, Connecticut that her children and several of their playmates had been diagnosed with arthritis (Steere 148). This was surely a strange case, since arthritis usually affects the elderly. The state health department contacted Dr. Allen Steere, a rheumatologist from Yale University, to investigate the case. Steere examined all 39 affected children and noticed that twelve of them had developed a strange, spreading skin rash prior to complaining about joint pains (Steere 152). A European doctor who happened to be visiting Yale at the time pointed out to Steere that the ring-like rashes were similar to ones associated with tick bites. Steere began testing blood samples from the children for specific antibodies against 38-known tick-transmitted viral infections.