Does Lyme disease have a cure? This is a question that cannot be easily answered with a yes or no. The answer depends on many factors. Lyme disease is not your ordinary bacterial infection. It is a multi-stage illness that can affect many organ systems in the body especially the nervous system. There are many treatments that a physician can suggest. Yes, some of them are effective. However, treatment is just one thing. Cure is another.
Stages of Lyme Disease
If you ask a doctor if Lyme disease has a cure, he will ask you back. What stage is the Lyme disease you are talking about in? Since symptoms of this notorious disease can appear any time from the day of the tick bite to even years later, severity varies from patient to patient depending on how long they have had the bacteria in their bodies. If the disease is on its early stage, it can be cured. If it is late or chronic Lyme disease, finding a cure is almost improbable. Although the disease itself can be difficult to deal with, symptoms of these disease can be improved.
Early Lyme Disease Cures
Early Lyme disease can be cured with antibiotics. These antibiotics include amoxicillin, ceftriaxone, and doxycycline. Amoxicillin and doxycycline usually come in capsule forms and are taken orally. They kill the pestering borrelia burgdorferi by inhibiting the synthesis of their cell walls. Ceftriaxone is applied intravenously or through injections. Macrolide antibiotics are also recommended sometimes. These drugs can cure the disease completely.
Curing Chronic Lyme Disease
However, there is no proven cure for chronic Lyme disease. Since some symptoms of this bacterial infection manifest weeks, months or even years after the tick bite, the disease is sometimes diagnosed too late. There are also cases wherein the doctors mistake the symptoms for something else and so the illness is not appropriately treated. Some patients only find out they got Lyme disease when it has damaged the body severely and has caused many problems in some organ systems. By then, dealing with it is not as easy as it would have been if detected early. This is why early detection and prevention are two important things in making sure that you’re healthy and safe. Some patients with chronic Lyme disease undergo antibiotic combo treatments, coinfection treatments, natural therapies, and symptomatic medications. Some of them recover fully. Some are left in their battle and search for a better treatment method.