“Chronic Lyme disease” is sometimes a catchall diagnosis for patients with a wide spectrum of musculoskeletal and neuropsychiatric symptoms, fatigue, and generalized pain. That, in turn, has led to a variety of treatments: courses of antibiotics lasting for months to years, IV infusions of hydrogen peroxide, immunoglobulin therapy, even stem cell transplants. Those treatments, though, may not lead to substantial long-term improvement—in fact, they can be harmful.
Clinicians, health departments, and patients have contacted the CDC reporting life-threatening complications resulting from treatment for chronic Lyme disease, including metastatic bacterial infections, septic shock, Clostridium difficile (C diff) colitis, and abscess. An article in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) described 5 cases that “highlight the severity and scope” of adverse effects caused by the use of unproven treatments for chronic Lyme disease.
One patient with fatigue and joint pain, was diagnosed with chronic Lyme disease, babesiosis, and Bartonella infection. When the symptoms worsened despite multiple courses of oral antibiotics, the patient was switched to IV ceftriaxone and cefotaxime. However, the pain did not lessen; the patient became hypotensive and tachycardic and was placed in intensive care. Her condition continued to worsen, and she died. The patient’s death was attributed to septic shock related to central venous catheter–associated bacteremia.
In another case, a woman was first diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, then as a second opinion, with chronic Lyme disease. After 7 months of intensive antimicrobial treatment, the pain improved but she got weaker. She also developed intractable C diff infection that required prolonged treatment. However, the patient died of complications of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis—an example, the researchers say, of a missed opportunity for appropriate treatment due to misdiagnosis.
Antibiotics and immunoglobulin therapies are effective and necessary treatments for many conditions, MMWR emphasized—“however, unnecessary antibiotic and immunoglobulin use provides no benefit to patients while putting them at risk for adverse events.”