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Ocassionally one might hear a question - how to diagnose disease caused by Borrelia burgdorferi correctly, without anxiety of a mistake that might cost the patient life? Is this even possible with current state of the scientific knowledge?

First thing that should be done, is antigen test from the blood sample. It nearly always give the positive result if there is active bacteria infection, but still this test should be confirmed. Best known confirmation is a Western - Blot test, this one nearly always give correct result, science know only few cases in which such test did not recognized the bacteria. Yet it is very wise to test the celebral spine fluid, not only the blood. Especially it’s problem for patients, who have disease symptoms that point out to neuroboreliosis.

In few specific cases, with very advanced infection, it might be wise to use a 7-10 days of antibiotic treatment, which will kill some of the bacteria. After such beginning, the patient’s immune system will produce alot of additional white blood cells. Therefore the western blot test will become even more specific.

Wise doctor will understand alot more than the patient, seeing test result. It not only tell if the bacteria is currently present in the body, but also show at which stage lyme is and what kind of treatment would suit this situation best.

There are some other tests, too. For example, one might try to isolate the bacteria from skin samples, make it breed then observe using a microscope. There is also a genetic test, but it’s not seldom used due to very high rate of the false positive results.

Finally, your doctor might decide to use the antibiotic injections without positive test results, just in case that sick man might get the specie of bacteria that is untrackable with the standard test procedures. Still, such a injections should last no more than 2-3 months, if Herxheimer reaction did not appear.