Welkom bij het Lymeforum

Was this important Lyme study hidden for 12 years?

The recently published monkey study by Embers and colleagues regarding the persistence of Lyme after antibiotic treatment is important for two distinct reasons. The first is because of the scientific results of the study, explained in a 5-part article I posted on this blog last week. (Links follow this post.) The second, more troubling reason, is because publication of this important research was delayed for over a decade. And that delay has seriously harmed Lyme patients.

A key component of the monkey study recently published by Embers and colleagues was a 90 day treatment trial designed as a companion to the highly-cited Klempner human trial of chronic Lyme disease published in 2001. The treatment regimen in the Klempner companion monkey study was exactly the same as those used for the human study. Unlike the human trials, however, the monkey trials were able to directly demonstrate persistent infection. In fact, the Embers study was proposed by patients on the Klempner advisory committee to act as a fact check on the results of Klempner, with the expectation that the two would be published in tandem. It is big news for patients that the two trials reached opposite conclusions.