top of page
Peer Reviewed Evidence of Persistence of Lyme Disease

​There is a large (and growing) body of evidence indicating persistent infection after standard courses of antibiotic treatment for Lyme Disease, often leading to chronic, debilitating illness.  Lyme patients desperately need more effective treatments.


The following is a list of over 700 peer reviewed articles that support the evidence of persistence of Lyme and other tick-borne diseases. It is organized into different categories—general, psychiatric, dementia, autism and congenital transmission.

The following section of references for persistence of Lyme disease (Lyme borreliosis) are listed alphabetically and chronologically: 

​

  • Aalto A, Sjowall J, Davidsson L, Forsberg P, Smedby O. Brain magnetic resonance imaging does not contribute to the diagnosis of chronic neuroborreliosis. Acta Radiol 2007; 48: 755-762. [white matter hyperintensities or basal ganglia lesions].

​

  •  Abele DC and Anders KH. The many faces and phases of borreliosis. J Am Acad Dermotol 1990; 23:401-410. [chronic Lyme borreliosis]. 

​

  • Aberer E and Klade H. Cutaneous manifestations of Lyme borreliosis. Infection 1991; 19: 284-286. [chronic Lyme borreliosis]. 

​

  • Aberer E, Breier F, Stanek G, and Schmidt B. Success and failure in the treatment of acrodermatitis chronica atrophicans skin rash. Infection 1996; 24: 85-87. 

​

  • Aberer E, Kersten A, Klade H, Poitschek C, Jurecka W. Heterogeneity of Borrelia burgdorferi in the skin. Am J Dermatopathol 1996; 18(6): 571-519. 

​

  • Akin E, McHugh Gl, Flavell RA, Fikrig E, Steere AC. The immunoglobulin (IgG) antibody response to OspA and OspB correlates with severe and prolonged Lyme arthritis and the IgG response to P35 with mild and brief arthritis. Infect Immun 1999; 67: 173-181.

​

  • Albert S, Schulze J, Riegel H, Brade V. Lyme arthritis in a 12-year-old patient after a latency period of 5 years. Infection 1999; 27(4- 5): 286-288. 

​

  • Al-Robaiy S, Dihazi H, Kacza J, et al. Metamorphosis of Borrelia burgdorferi organisms―RNA, lipid and protein composition in context with the spirochete’s shape. J Basic Microbiol 2010, 50 Suppl 1, S5-17. 

​

  • Appel MJG, Allan S, Jacobson RH, Lauderdale TL, Chang YF, Shin SJ, Thomford JW, Todhunter RJ, and Summers BA. Experimental Lyme disease in dogs produces arthritis and persistent infection. J Inf Dis 1993; 167: 651-664. 

​

  • Åsbrink E, Hovmark A. Successful cultivation of spirochetes from skin lesions of patients with erythema chronicum migrans, Afzelius and acrodermatis chronica atrophicans. Acta Pathol Microbiol Immunol Sect B 1985; 93: 161-163. 

​

  • Åsbrink E, Hovmark A, and Olsson I. Clinical manifestations of acrodermatitis chronica atrophicans in 50 Swedish patients. Zentralbl Bakteriol Mikrobiol Hyg A 1986; 26: 253-261. [chronic Lyme borreliosis]. 

​

  • Asch ES, Bujak DI, Weiss M, Peterson MGE, and Weinstein A. Lyme Disease: an infectious and postinfectious syndrome. J Rheumatol 1994; 21 (3): 451-461. 

​

  • Bankhead T and Chaconas G. The role of VlsE antigenic variation in the Lyme disease spirochete: persistence through a mechanism that differs from other pathogens. Molecular Microbiology 2007; 65: 1547-1558.

​

  • Barthold SW, Persing DH, Armstrong AL, and Peeples RA. Kinetics of Borrelia burgdorferi dissemination and evolution of disease following intradermal inoculation of mice. Am J Pathol 1991; 139: 263-273. [in mice] 

​

  • Barthold SW, deSouza MS, Janotka JL, Smith AL, and Persing DH. Chronic Lyme borreliosis in laboratory mouse. Am J Pathol 1993; 143: 951-971. [in mice.


View the full list here: http://www.ilads.org/ilads_news/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/EvidenceofPersistence-V2.pdf

(Source: ILADS.org)

bottom of page