Expanded Study Confirms that Lyme Disease May Be Sexually Transmitted

Commentary: A new study implicating sexual transmission of Lyme disease has been published in the open access journal F1000 Research. ”

The current study, which confirms and expands a preliminary report published in The Journal of Investigative Medicine, was a collaborative effort by an international team of scientists…In the study, researchers tested semen samples and vaginal secretions from three groups of people: control subjects without evidence of Lyme disease, individual patients who tested positive for Lyme disease, and couples engaging in unprotected sex who tested positive for the disease.

As expected, all of the control subjects tested negative for Borrelia burgdorferi in cultures of semen samples or vaginal secretions. In contrast, twelve of thirteen patients with Lyme disease had positive cultures for Borrelia burgdorferi in their genital secretions”. This research is strongly suggestive of sexual transmission. Further research is needed however to determine the actual risk of transmission in an infected individual, since couples living in Lyme endemic areas may still have been exposed to the bacterium (and similar strains) through a tick bite.

12/19/14 Expanded Study Confirms that Lyme Disease May Be Sexually Transmitted, Digital Journal