Topic: doctor wants references: treating tick bite with no symptoms?
timaca
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 6911
posted
Hi all~
My PCP who is quite open to the whole lyme issue and has been fascinated by it all, asked me a question yesterday.
Is there any literature about treating a tick bite with antibiotics if the person shows NO signs of infection?
I think Dr. B's guidelines talks about 4-6 weeks of antibiotics with signs of early infection...and I gave her those.
I don't think ILADS guidelines talks about treating a tick bite w/o symptoms.
Am I correct? Any published literature out there?
I think she had a patient with a tick bite who had asked her.
And with her seeing what I've been through with not getting diagnosed, she was wondering what the literature had to say.
Thanks in advance....Timaca
Posts: 2872 | From above 7,000 ft in a pine forest | Registered: Feb 2005
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lymie tony z
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 5130
posted
IF she's really worried have her go to the ILADS website...
or the LDA
or have her call one of our LLMD's....zman
-------------------- I am not a doctor...opinions expressed are from personal experiences only and should never be viewed as coming from a healthcare provider. zman Posts: 2527 | From safety harbor florida(origin Cleve., Ohio | Registered: Jan 2004
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timaca
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 6911
posted
I've looked on the ILADS website and I don't think they mention it. I may be missing something. That is why I have posted the question here.
Timaca
Posts: 2872 | From above 7,000 ft in a pine forest | Registered: Feb 2005
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I'm not sure this is exactly on-target, but I did save this link for an article that I believe cave76 posted a while back (forgive me cave if this is a case of mistaken identity!).
posted
The one above suggests that a single dose of antibiotic will prevent lyme from developing after a tick bite. But another study found that people who did this still developed lyme in cases they examined.
So, although prophylaxis might be a good idea, this one dose thing is still undertreatment. And IDSA nonsense about identifying the tick, etc is sure to result in more cases untreated in time. Also, what about all those people who don't see the tick or don't know how long it has been attached or can't determine the extent of engorgement. How ludicrous is that in a treatment guideline? Let's have a study where primary care docs are tested on their ability to identify nymphal ticks. Probably not a single one could do it.
What might be more convincing is the finding that keets are in the central nervous system in a very short time after a bite from an infected tick. Can't remember who wrote this article, it has been posted on lymenet a number of times.
The problem is that in states with fewer cases, and not known to have deer ticks, it may be felt that prophylaxis is less important.
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timaca
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 6911
posted
Thanks for everyone's replies. My PCP e-mail will be FULL of articles for her to read.
I did a search at www.scholar.google.com for "prohylaxis doxycycline lyme disease" and came up with a bunch of articles. I e-mailed her the whole link.
One on page 5 is worth checking out....Timaca
Development of erythema migrans in spite of treatment with antibiotics after a tick bite - group of 4 � V Maraspin, S Lotric-Furlan, F Strle - Wien Klin Wochenschr, 2002 - springer.at ... RB, Nowakowski J, Fish D, Falco RC, Freeman K, McKenna D, et al (2001) Prophylaxis with single-dose doxycycline for the prevention of Lyme disease after an ... Cited by 3 - Related Articles - View as HTML - Web Search - BL Direct
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