| Martijn 2004-11-16, 4:30 pm |
| INTENSIVE TREATMENT HELPS PEOPLE WITH CHRONIC LYME DISEASE
Report from the NIH-funded Columbia Study of Chronic Neurologic Lyme
Disease
Jackson, New Jersey, November 2, 2004-Patients with chronic Lyme
disease retreated with 10 weeks of intravenous antibiotics showed
significant improvement in cognition and other symptoms, said
Columbia university neuropsychiatrist Brian Fallon, MD, principal
investigator for a $4.7 million study funded by the National
Institutes of Health. Fallon presented the results for the first
time at the October 22 conference jointly sponsored by the national
New Jersey based Lyme Disease Association (LDA) in conjunction with
Columbia University.
To be eligible for the study, patients had to have chronic Lyme
disease with ongoing memory impairment. All had previously been
treated with at least 3 weeks of IV antibiotics and relapsed. All
patients in the study were tested with cutting-edge brain-imaging
techniques, and significant improvement in neurocognitive function
was seen over the 10-week IV antibiotic retreatment period.
"This is the first randomized controlled trial of chronic neurologic
Lyme disease; the results support the benefit of a repeated course
of longer-term intravenous antibiotic therapy for patients with a
return of cognitive problems", said Fallon.
Lyme disease is caused by a spiral-shaped bacteria carried by poppy-
seed-sized ticks and is rapidly spreading throughout the United
States. The numbers of cases reported to the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC) increased 40% to 24,000 cases in 2002.
The CDC estimates that reported cases represent less than 10% of
true cases-about 240,000 Americans may have contracted new cases in
2002 nationwide.
Almost 300 healthcare professionals from around the country attended
the conference, which was held in Westchester County, New York, one
of the country's most endemic areas. Lyme disease is a world-wide
emerging infection representing 90% of all cases of vector-borne
diseases in the US. It is often complicated by co-infections that
make diagnosis and treatment more complex.
Sherwood Casjens, PhD, university of Utah School of Medicine, and a
renowned genome team including Claire Fraser, PhD, President, The
Institute of Genomic Research (TIGR), presented new information that
Borrelia burgdorferi, the spiral-shaped bacteria that cause Lyme
disease, are able to freely exchange genetic material among
themselves, potentially making diagnosis and treatment difficult.
The team of researchers concluded that frequent recombination may
help the bacteria survive in ticks and in the animals they feed on,
including humans. The research was published in the Sept. 28 issue
of The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
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