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Joseph Burke
American Lyme Disease Alliance Pitman, NJ

JAMA. 1993;270(22):2682.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

To the Editor.

—It is the year 1993 not 1983. Unfortunately, many physicians still do not realize that Lyme disease becomes chronic, if not treated early and aggressively.

Steere et al¹ assert that the patients in the study did not have Lyme disease because these patients were still ill after 30 days of treatment. If these physicians used polymerase chain reaction or immune capture testing to eliminate the diagnosis of Lyme disease, it would have made their study credible; however, they had no objective data to give their claim merit.

There is no evidence to prove that Borrelia burgdorferi can be eradicated in vivo in 30 days. Therefore, considering the fact that most chronically ill Lyme disease patients report continued improvement when antibiotic treatment is extended well beyond 30 days, Steere and his fellow researchers would have done a much greater service had they conducted a study on the . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

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