Will One Dose of Doxycycline After a Tick Bite
Prevent or Cure Lyme Disease?
NO!
August 2012- The Infectious Disease Society of America (IDSA) and Johns Hopkins Infectious Disease doctors have 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 (most with any sense did not) will be disappointed to know that it has not only failed, but has also been proven to be FALSE.
IDSA's 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).
New studies have determined the "one dose" prophylactic treatment protocol was totally ineffective. Print out the recommended treatment for tick bites (one page) and take it to your doctor with you. It can be found here...
Protective value of prophylactic antibiotic treatment of tick bite for Lyme disease prevention: An animal model ☆
- Joseph Piesman, Andrias Hojgaard,
- Bacterial Diseases Branch, Division of Vector-Borne Diseases, The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 3150 Rampart Road, Fort Collins, CO 80521, USA
- Received 29 November 2011. Revised 19 January 2012. Accepted 20 January 2012. Available online 13 March 2012.
"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."
There is also the problem with Lyme tests missing up to 75% of the people who are infected. Using that test to determine if someone is infected further skews the results in Lyme related studies.
Get it RIGHT!
Treat the BITE!
Link to article here.
QUOTE- "...the seven patients presented demonstrate that antibiotic prophylaxis for Lyme borreliosis after a tick bite, at least in Europe, is not entirely effective." Source
QUOTE- "Overall, 56.4% of 1485 providers reported prescribing tick bite prophylaxis at least once in the previous year, including 73.9% of HCPs [healthcare providers] in high LDI and 48.2% in low LDI states.
The reasons [antibiotics] given were 'to prevent Lyme disease' (76.9%), 'patients request it' (40.4%) and 'to prevent other tickborne diseases' (29.4%)."