Lyme Disease

If aggressive antibiotic therapy is given early, and the patient cooperates fully and sticks to the medication schedule, recovery should be complete. Only a small percentage of Lyme disease patients fail to respond or relapse (have recurring episodes). Most long-term effects of the disease result when diagnosis and treatment is delayed or missed. Co-infection with other infectious organisms spread by ticks in the same areas as Bb (babesiosis and ehrlichiosis, for instance) may be responsible for treatment failures or more severe symptoms. Lyme disease has been responsible for deaths, but that is rare.