why is Lyme disease harder to diagnose compared to other bacterial infections?
In: Biology
The symptoms being used as a diagnosis are rather vague, and even the “telltale rash” doesn’t appear like 25% of the time.
The diagnostic tests have some limitations be cause the antibodies that they detect take time to build up in the system. It could be weeks before someone who is positive actually shows positive. It is also possible to get false positives be cause other bacteria may cause the same antibodies to show up.
The big deal is that our tests look for the antibodies rather than for the bacteria itself in samples. That alone could be a game-changer if developed.
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