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Appropriateness of Parenteral Antibiotic Treatment for Patients with Presumed Lyme Disease
- American College of Rheumatology the Council of the Infectious Diseases Society of America.
- A Joint Statement of The American College of Rheumatology and the Council of The Infectious Diseases Society of America* * This paper was written by Benjamin J. Luft, MD; Pierce Gardner, MD; and Robert W. Lightfoot, Jr., MD. Members of the joint committee from the American College of Rheumatology and the Infectious Diseases Society of America included Melvin C. Britton, MD; Pierce Gardner, MD; Ronald L. Kaufman, MD; Robert W. Lightfoot, Jr., MD; Benjamin J. Luft, MD; Daniel W. Rahn, MD; Leonard H. Sigal, MD; Allen C. Steere, MD; David C. Zoschke, MD.
This Position Paper accompanies a Review paper in this issue (Empirical Parenteral Antibiotic Treatment of Patients with Fibromyalgia and Fatigue and a Positive Serologic Result for Lyme Disease: A Cost-Effectiveness Analysis); see pages 503-509.
Position Statement
Growing attention to Lyme disease in the medical and lay press has led to increased serologic testing in patients with nonspecific symptoms (such as myalgia and chronic fatigue) without a history of classical clinical features of Lyme disease. Many patients with such nonspecific symptoms and a positive serologic test result are assumed to have Lyme disease and have been treated empirically with prolonged antibiotic therapy. A committee appointed by the American College of Rheumatology and the Council of the Infectious Diseases Society of America …
