Study offers clues about persistent Lyme disease

In a groundbreaking study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers from Virginia Tech, Yale and Harvard may have found a reason why some people who get Lyme disease still have the crippling symptoms years after treatment with no sign of the disease still in their blood stream. Post-treatment Lyme Disease Syndrome (PTLDS) occurs in about 10% of people with Lyme disease following standard treatment with antibiotics, and is associated with symptoms like muscle aches, fatigue and neurological symptoms that appear to defy explanation, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The medical community has been divided on whether or not Lyme disease symptoms can show up well after treatment ends. The diagnosis is controversial as there is often no detectable infection coexisting with the symptoms. Dr. Brandon Jutras, an Assistant Professor of Biochemistry at Virginia Tech and lead author of the study said that "it might be time to look for other...