One Dose of Doxycycline After a Tick Bite
Will Prevent or Cure Lyme Disease
August 2012- The Infectious Disease Society of America (IDSA) has long supported the notion that one dose of Doxycycline (antibiotic) within 3 days of a tick bite will prevent Lyme disease. The few people who actually believed that story will be disappointed to know that it has been proven to be FALSE.
OLD Theory- "Treatment of tick bite with 200 mg of oral doxycycline was 87% effective in preventing Lyme disease in tick-bite victims" (Nadelman, R.B., Nowakowski, J., Fish, D., Falco, R.C., Freeman, K., McKenna, D., Welch, P., Marcus, R., Agúero-Rosenfeld, M.E., Dennis, D.T., Wormser, G.P., 2001. Prophylaxis with single-dose doxycycline for the prevention of Lyme disease after an Ixodes scapularis tick bite. N. Engl. J. Med. 345, 79–84).
FALSE!
NEW STUDY- found the IDSA's prophylactic treatment protocol was totally ineffective when tested on mice after 2 days of having a tick bite, was much less effective on day one than originally stated, and on day two less than half of the subjects were protected.
"We found that two treatments of doxycycline delivered by oral gavage to mice on the day of removal of a single potentially infectious nymphal I. scapularis protected 74% of test mice compared to controls.
When treatment was delayed until 24 h after tick removal, only 47% of mice were protected; prophylactic treatment was totally ineffective when delivered ≥2 days after tick removal.
Although the dynamics of antibiotic treatment in mice may differ from humans, and translation of animal studies to patient management must be approached with caution, we believe our results emphasize the point that antibiotic prophylactic treatment of tick bite to prevent Lyme disease is more likely to be efficacious if delivered promptly after potentially infectious ticks are removed from patients. There is only a very narrow window for prophylactic treatment to be effective post tick removal."
NOTE- THEN there is the problem with the Lyme tests that miss up to 75% of the people who are infected. Using the current tests on the market as an end point to determine infection further skews results in all studies.
Link to article here.
Updated June 2014