RESEARCH ARTICLE


Therapy of Lyme Disease



Giusto Trevisan1, *, Enzo Errichetti2, Nicola di Meo1, Caterina Pinzani2, Katiuscia Nan2, Giuseppe Stinco2
1 Dermatology and Venereology Department, University of Trieste, Italy
2 Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, Institute of Dermatology, University of Udine, Italy


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Creative Commons License
© Trevisan et al.; Licensee Bentham Open.

open-access license: This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial 4.0 International Public License (CC BY-NC 4.0) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/legalcode), which permits unrestricted, non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited.

* Address correspondence to this author at the Clinica Dermatologica, Università degli Studi di Trieste, IV piano Palazzina Infettivi-34100 Trieste, Italy; Tel: +390403992056; Email: trevisan@units.it


Abstract

Borrelia burgdorferi is highly susceptible to antibiotic treatment and the majority of patients profit from this treatment. Antibiotic selection, dose and route of administration, and duration of therapy for Lyme disease depend on the patient’s clinical manifestations and stage of disease, age, pregnancy status, as well as the presence of other concomitant diseases and/or allergies. Despite an appropriate antibiotic therapy, about 10-20% of patients may show persistent or recurrent symptoms ("post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome").

In the present paper we will briefly discuss the post-exposure prophylaxis, before going on to talk over the current therapeutic approach regarding the management of Lyme disease according to the stage of disease/clinical manifestations. Finally, we will discuss the main treatment-related phenomenon, the Jarisch-Herxheimer reaction, and the treatment modalities for special categories of patients, namely pregnant women, subjects suffering from post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome, possible Borrelia-associated skin manifestations, coinfections and Baggio-Yoshinary syndrome.

Keywords: Borreliosis, Baggio-Yoshinary syndrome, Jarisch-Herxheimer reaction, Lyme disease, Therapy, Treatment.