Lyme disease is caused by the spirochete shaped bacteria Borrelia burgdorferi and Borrelia mayonii and is transmitted by the bite of a deer tick. For a number of reasons Lyme disease is frequently misdiagnosed or missed entirely. About 50-75% of patients recall having had the characteristic bull’s eye rash. Fifty percent of patients don’t even recall having had a tick bite. In addition, the ELISA test that is commonly used for screening is only 65% sensitive, thus missing 35% of cases. An additional 20-30% of culture-positive proven Lyme patients show negative results on the Western Blot test, in part due to oddities in the criteria mandated by the CDC in reporting the results.
READ MORE ABOUT THE RECOMMENDED LYME PROTOCOL.
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