Why Lyme Disease is Misdiagnosed

There are three main reasons will Lyme disease is so often misdiagnosed:
Confusing Symptoms
Ineffective Testing
Ignorance

Confusing Symptoms
Suppose for a moment that you are a doctor. A patient comes to you with complaints of ten symptoms. Eight of these fit perfectly with a common ailment, so you prescribe some medicine for them, thinking they will get better. However, they come back telling you that they haven't gotten better and now they have fifteen symptoms. You run a few test and find something out of the norm, so you prescribe something to them again, hoping you got it right this time. The patient keeps coming back and is getting irritated. Everything you try fails even though everything you learned tells you that the treatments you give should work. It is at this time that you have the choice of not believing the patient or digging in deeper and looking for answers where you may not have looked before.

Because Lyme disease imitates so many other illnesses, its no wonder that unless a doctor is familiar with Lyme, that is not the first thing they think of. This is frustrating for the patient because they can start to loose faith in the doctor, and frustrating for the doctor because everything they were sure of doesn't work.

If a doctor is willing to dig deeper into the problem, there is a good chance they will look into Lyme disease since Lyme awareness is growing. However, if a doctor chooses to take the easy path of not believing their patient, the results can be worse than neglect.

Ineffective Testing
In 1996, the CDC developed a two tear system for diagnosing Lyme using the results of a screening test, ELISA, to determine if the second test should be administered (Harris, 2008). The problem with this is that in early Lyme disease cases, ELISA is only about 70 percent sensitive, and in late Lyme disease, it drops to only 30 or 40 percent sensitive (Harris, 2008). So, if the diagnosis of Lyme stops after a negative ELISA test, many people who have Lyme disease will be missed.

The Western Blot test is more thorough, and DNA testing can be helpful when done properly, but there is no foolproof test for Lyme disease as of yet (Harris, 2008).

One problem with the DNA test is that some doctors take a blood sample to test (Harris, 2008). This may not be accurate because the shape of Borrelia burgdorferi is spiral so it moves through the tissue easier than through blood, and it avoids the blood stream because of the oxygen in it (Harris, 2008). So, by its very nature, Lyme disease is not easily found in the blood. A better location to take a DNA sample is in the bladder or using urine according to Dr. Harris.

There are 5 different subspecies of Borrelia burgdorferi, 100 different strains in the USA, and 300 different strains in the world (ILADS, 2009). Most doctors that I spoke to did not know this. If a test is created based on one strain of one subspecies, then what will guarantee that it will be effective finding another strain of another subspecies? There is no absolute testing method for Lyme disease. The best way to be diagnosed is based on clinical observation and discussion (Harris, 2008).

Ignorance
Just since the time that I was diagnosed, awareness of Lyme Disease has at least tripled. When I started researching Lyme disease four years ago, there was very little our there, and the doctors I spoke to only had a vague story book idea of what it was. Through the years I've seen better research come out, better organizations show up, and more and more people on the street who know what Lyme disease is.

As encouraging as this is there is still a lot of ignorance. Not one of my doctors ever thought of Lyme disease. It was my sister and my research that gave us the idea that it might be Lyme, and we were blessed enough to have a doctor who listened to us, did her own research, and diagnosed us. Most people just don't know about Lyme disease, and even some who do still have very old ideas about diagnosing and treating it. Though I was finally diagnosed, I was treated ineffectively and faced relapses until I did my homework and turned to Alternative Medicine.

I challenge anyone who has, or knows someone who has Lyme disease to do their homework and see exactly how screenings work, and what treatments do to the body.

Disclaimer: This information is purely for educational purposes.

References:

Harris, Steven Dr, Williams, Lynda Dr. Lyme Disease 101 Interview with Dr. Steven Harris and Dr. Lynda Williams.Radio interview KVMR 89.5 FM. 2008.

ILADS. Basic Information About Lyme Disease. International Lyme and Associated Disease Society. www.ilads.org. 2009.