Lyme Disease Costs Up to $1.3 Billion Annually to Treat

Commentary: A new study on Lyme disease published in PLoS one by researchers at the John Hopkins University School of Medicine found that many more patients are in fact suffering with symptoms of chronic Lyme disease that previously suspected: “Some patients report symptoms lasting for weeks, months or years beyond completion of the original antibiotic regimen. There is no approved therapy for these patients and the magnitude of the problem in the U.S. population has never been systematically studied. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates 10 percent to 20 percent of those treated for Lyme disease with the recommended two-to-four week course of antibiotics continue to have symptoms. But, in the new study, the researchers found that more than 63 percent of those treated for Lyme disease had at least one PTLDS-related diagnosis — a rate 36 percentage points higher than those who did not have Lyme disease“. This study suggests “that a prolonged illness associated with the disease is more widespread and serious in some patients than previously understood“.

This John Hopkins study also highlighted how these Lyme disease patients with a prolonged illness increased the burden of costs for our health care system. Study author Emily Adrion, MSc looked at the actual costs of treating patients in the year following their Lyme diagnosis and “regardless of what you call it, our data show that many people who have been diagnosed with Lyme disease are in fact going back to the doctor complaining of persistent symptoms, getting multiple tests and being retreated… The researchers found that, on average, people with Lyme disease cost the system $2,968 more than matched controls…and they cost the healthcare system about $1 billion a year”.

Prior published scientific studies showed even higher health care costs for treating Lyme disease. In one study, conducted in 2006 by Zhang and colleagues and adjusted in 2013 for inflation, the researchers found that the mean annual cost of illness was $20,502 per year per patient for late Lyme disease, year after year after year (Source: Zhang, X., Meltzer, M.I., Pena, C.A., Hopkins, A.B., Wroth, L., and Fix, A.D. (2006) Economic Impact of Lyme Disease, Emerging Infectious Diseases, 12(4), 653 – 660. Adj. for inflation 2006 – 13).

This article highlights the existence of long term health problems and an increased burden of health care costs post treatment for Lyme disease. I agree with Dr Aucott that these patients are suffering a debilitating illness and that we should stop debating the existence of long term problems. However, I disagree with his statement that “No one really knows what to do with them”. I have seen over 12,000 chronically ill Lyme patients during the past 28 years, and patients with chronic symptoms after classical treatment for Lyme disease have multi factorial causes for their illness. I call this syndrome Lyme-MSIDS, and it has been outlined extensively in my book “Why Can’t I Get Better? Solving the Mystery of Lyme and Chronic Disease”. MSIDS stands for Multiple Systemic Infectious Disease Syndrome, and represents sixteen potential overlapping medical problems contributing to persistent symptoms in the Lyme patient. 

The first point on the MSIDS map is infections. Ticks are now containing multiple bacterial, viral and parasitic infections which can be transmitted simultaneously with Borrelia burgdorferi, the agent of Lyme disease. Patients infected with Lyme disease and associated co-infections (especially Babesia) are much sicker and resistant to standard therapies. Patients with Lyme-MSIDS also have evidence of associated immune dysfunction, inflammation, environmental toxins and heavy metal burdens, detoxification problems, nutritional deficiencies, hormonal abnormalities, sleep disorders, mitochondrial dysfunction, food allergies and sensitivities, deconditioning and imbalances in their autonomic nervous system (the part of the body that controls the heart rate, blood pressure and digestive system). All of these factors can keep the patient chronically ill. As long as we continue to hold onto a commonly held belief in medicine, called Pasteur’s postulate, that there is “one cause for one illness”, we will be denying patients effective care. The term “chronic Lyme disease” or “PTLD” needs to be redefined as Lyme-MSIDS to more accurately reflect the multiple underlying etiologies responsible for persistent symptoms. Its time for a paradigm shift, where we stop denying the extensive published scientific research on Lyme disease (highlighted in my book) and the work of hundreds of dedicated health care professionals treating patients with Lyme disease who have had success using this multi factorial model.   

Lyme Disease Costs Up to $1.3 Billion Annually to Treat, Study Finds, Infection Control Today