Lyme Disease Research Foundation Inc.

Education: Provide educational material and links to attempt to capture the complexity of Lyme disease and identify those areas that are well understood while identifying those areas of uncertainty and confusion.
Conducting prospective cohort study
of post treatment Lyme syndrome.
Research: The Lyme Disease Research Foundation of Maryland is the first community-based, university-affiliated Lyme disease evaluation center devoted to the study of post-treatment Lyme syndrome. It will work to accomplish the following:

Analyze the clinical variables and severity of illness in patients referred for evaluation of persistent symptoms of Lyme disease:

o Establish the prevalence of post-treatment Lyme syndrome in Dr. John Aucott?s Maryland infectious disease referral practice.

o Evaluate the accuracy of different diagnostic strategies for detecting post-treatment Lyme syndrome.

o Identify clinical risk factors in patients who have developed post-treatment Lyme syndrome.

· Identify biologic variables that are associated with the development of post-treatment Lyme syndrome in patients with acute Lyme disease:

o Examine elements of the human immune system associated with development of persistent symptoms after the standard course of antibiotic therapy.

o Examine properties of the infectious bacteria Borrelia burgdorferi that correlate to the severity of infection and types of symptoms presented in patients.

· Test strategies for the treatment of post-treatment Lyme syndrome by carrying out randomized clinical trials for the scientific evaluation of potential treatment protocols for post-treatment Lyme syndrome.

* Work toward establishing a consensus within the medical community on strategies for the diagnosis and treatment of post-treatment Lyme syndrome patients