Lyme disease can be very scary. Although the classic symptom of this disease is a bull’s-eye rash that appears where a tick bit the skin, only half of those who have Lyme disease will actually develop the rash. This means that there is a one in chance of not getting diagnose correctly even after a tick has been you. That even assuming that remember a tick bit you. Over 60% of patients who have been diagnosed with Lyme disease do not remember being bitten by a tick.
Blood Testing Doesn’t Always Work
One of the standard methods of diagnosing Lyme disease has been a blood test. The only problem is that the standard blood testing which is covered by most health insurance plans has an estimated sensitivity level that is less than 50%. This means that the chances of being accurately diagnosed with Lyme disease art equal to the chances of diagnosing your disease by costing the coin. It is important to remember that a negative standard blood test results does not necessarily mean that someone does not have Lyme disease.
Another problem with the diagnosis of Lyme disease is that most text will actually carry multiple diseases that can be transmitted in the same bite. These co-infections, as are called, are not currently tested under CDC guidelines. Many of these infections can carry the same symptoms of Lyme disease, but they do not respond to the standard Lyme treatment, which is the antibiotic doxycycline.
It Takes a Long Time To Achieve a Diagnosis
Why Lyme disease so challenging for doctors? It is because the disease can cause over 300 different symptoms and those symptoms can manifest themselves in multiple ways based on the unique body chemistry of any individual patient. Because of these difficulties, it can take an average of 2 to 3 years for someone to be correctly diagnosed with the problem. That long time for Lyme disease pathogens to become adapted body. Whenever Lyme disease hits a late age, the risk of treatment failure and the disease becoming chronic increases every day.
What is amazing about Lyme disease is how often the medical community will ignore it, even though it is considered a global epidemic. The CDC estimates that there are about 325 new case every year in the United States alone. Because of the inaccurate test and the underreporting of the diagnose line disease, this is suspected to be a fraction of the actual number of infections that occur. Many people who have Lyme disease are often told that their symptoms are just in their head.
Even seeking out treatment early is not a guarantee that Lyme disease will be eradicated. The standard course of treatment is up to a four week course of antibiotics. The problem is that the bacteria that causes Lyme disease can actually survive the short-term antibiotic treatments. Large-scale patient surveys have consistently shown that short-term treatments for Lyme disease will fail in 9 out of 10 incidents where chronic Lyme disease is suspected.
Lyme disease is something that should be taken seriously. If you suspect that you may have Lyme disease, seek medical help right away. It is easier to treat an acute infection than it is to treat a chronic infection.