Dr. Szantyr Responds to New Guidelines for EM Rash

In a letter to the Editor of the American Journal of Medicine, Beatrice Szantyr, MD responds to the new guidelines published by the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) for erythema migrans (EM) rash.  

Dr. Szantyr’s letter to the Editor highlights:

• “Repeating incorrect information does not cause it to become correct.” This comment is in response to the erroneous statement by Auwaerter et al, “that taking single-dose doxycycline after an Ixodes tick bite prevents Lyme disease, has not been demonstrated by any North American study to date.”
• Dr. Szantyr contends that although this statement has been cited repeatedly, the single North American study (Nadelman et al.) on one -dose doxycycline for the treatment of EM rash was insufficient in showing efficacy because the researchers in the study did not follow study participants long enough.
• Dr. Szantyr further contends that “A more valid assessment of the current science is that the optimum dosage and duration of antibiotic prophylaxis for preventing Lyme disease after an Ixodes tick bite remains unknown.”
• Dr. Szantyr warns that when strengths and limitations of available information are not disclosed or highlighted, it can diminish the quality of decision-making for clinicians in their everyday assessments and subject their patients to “undisclosed risks.”

Read the full text letter and find references here

Read more LDA articles on Lyme Treatment Guidelines here