Chronic borreliosis (Lyme d.) is linked to antibiotic resistance

This if from a study by Bijaya Sharmaa et al, who studied the resistance patterns of Borrelia burgdorferi (a bacterium that causes Lyme disease), after having noticed that chronic Lyme patients tend to have a recurence of the infection with the next wave of bacteria being antibiotic resistant.

This kind of antibiotic resistance hasn't been found before in previous lab tests on bacteria isolated from the wild and the exact cause of why they tend to be so resistant in chronic patients isn't fully understood.

What we do know is that in these cases, treating a Lyme patient with the known medications can wipe out most of the bacteria, but there's still a small population of persistant bacteria left behind.
Combinations of antibiotics were not seen to be more effective. It took the researchers up to 4 waves of administering antibiotics in the culture to fully eliminate all persistant bacteria.



Source: "Borrelia burgdorferi, the Causative Agent of Lyme Disease, Forms Drug-Tolerant Persister Cells "
Bijaya Sharmaa, Autumn V. Browna, Nicole E. Matlucka, Linden T. Hub and Kim Lewisa
Antimicrob. Agents Chemother. August 2015 vol. 59 no. 8 4616-4624

Note: this post is not intended to provide a diagnosis or medication guidelines. It's here only for educational and discussional purposes.

Sadly antibiotic resistant bacteria are becoming very common, in the UK gonorrhea is about to be turned into a incurable disease. Because this bacteria is no longer reaction to antibiotics, I think there is only one left, but when that one stops working... it might be incurable. They beleive this is all caused because antibiotics have been used in excess and in the wrong way. I8 completely agree, blame it on those who have started an antibiotic treatment, but stopped the treatment before finishing it, because they started to feel better after a couple days.