Are Llmds Infectious Disease Specialists
No. While it is possible for a LLMD to be an infectious disease specialist, LLMDs can come from any field or background. Many LLMDs are general practitioners or family doctors, while others may specialize in a specific type of medicine, such as naturopathic medicine.
For more information on finding a LLMD, read IGeneXs blog How to Find Doctors Who Can Help with Your Tick-Borne Disease.
Infectious Disease Physician & Travel Clinic Services Located In Lansdowne Va
Early signs of Lyme disease include fever, chills, fatigue and muscle aches. If youre experiencing any of these symptoms and youve been in an area known to have deer ticks, you should call the Infectious Diseases Tropical Medicine and Travel Clinic in Lansdowne, Virginia, for an appointment with specialist Sarfraz Choudhary, MD, FACS, right away. Its important to treat Lyme disease early because later symptoms can be more severe. Dr. Choudhary has extensive experience diagnosing and treating Lyme disease, which is often difficult to diagnose. Call or make an appointment online.
State And Local Lyme Organizations And Nonprofits
If youre unable to find an LLMD through a national organization, consider doing a web search for a state or local Lyme organization or nonprofit. Some keywords that may generate helpful, search results for you include:
- The name of your state
- Lyme disease
- Nonprofit
For example, typing in Minnesota Lyme disease nonprofit yields the Minnesota Lyme Association , where you can then browse their website for ways to locate a physician or fill out the contact form for more help. These days, most states have some sort of site to distribute information to inquiring patients.
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Do I Need To See An Infectious Disease Specialist To Get Tested For Lyme Disease
No, you do not need to see an infectious disease specialist.
As noted above, any type of physician should be able to order the correct diagnostic tests, interpret your test results, and provide antibiotics to treat Lyme disease. This is especially true the earlier the disease is caught.
In fact, American Lyme Disease Foundation points out that waiting for an appointment with an infectious disease or other type of specialist can actually delay your diagnosis and treatment. If you were bitten by a tick, notice symptoms of Lyme disease, or believe youre at risk for Lyme or another tick-borne disease, its important that you make an appointment with a doctor immediately even if its your primary care physician.
That said, there are plenty of reasons why you may want to consult with, or get a second opinion from, someone with specific experience with Lyme disease. In other words, you may want to make an appointment with a Lyme-literate doctor . Read on to learn more.
Tick Borne Disease Referral Clinic
Long Island harbors a large area of beautiful, recreational parks where ticks and other insects can be found. For medical reasons, ticks are important because they are vectors of microorganisms such as bacteria, virus or parasites. Not all ticks carry these infectious organisms, thus not all tick bites are dangerous or pose a risk for acquiring an infection. Still, people can contract an infection without recognizing a recent tick bite.
Some ticks can transmit the following infectious diseases :1. Lyme Disease3. Anaplasmosis4. Babesiosis
Most of these infections are cured by a short course of antibiotics. Sometimes, these infections can cause a more severe disease in some patients. Other infectious diseases that can be transmitted by ticks in Long Island are: Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, Tularemia, and Powassan virus.
Our highly-trained doctors will help review and manage these infections when you are seen in our outpatient facility. For treatment purposes, we follow the Infectious Diseases Society of America Guidelines .
As Tick-Borne Diseases are a topic of national research interest, we also have research projects underway to understand and provide new medical knowledge that will help other physicians to manage these infections for their patients. Our research explores how these tick borne diseases affect the health of humans. The more we understand these diseases, the better we can assign treatment modalities to patients.
Recommended websites
Recommended Reading: Lyme Research And Healing Center
Do Antibiotics Kill Lyme Disease
In acute cases, or when taken prophylactically soon after a bite, antibiotics can be helpful. But Dr. Dane recommends follow-up testing with DNA Connexions and MacTech Imaging. Not everyone bitten by a tick will develop Lyme disease. However, it is becoming more broadly accepted that increased numbers of patients experience treatment failure and end up with long-term, debilitating symptoms. These may include pain, fatigue, and cognitive dysfunction. This is why extra testing is worth the effort.
Long-term antibiotic therapy for treating CLD has negative effects on the immune and venous systems if the antibiotics are given intravenously. But the main disadvantage of this type of treatment is that patients do not get the satisfaction of saying unequivocally that they beat the disease. Even Lyme-literate doctors will say antibiotics help to manage symptoms but do not eliminate the disease. This is true.
Antibiotics place Lyme infections into a dormant state, which of course result in the patient feeling better. The problem is that symptoms return as soon as antibiotics are stopped. Herbals do basically the same thing. The spirochetes go into a cystic formation and cover up with biofilm.
Spirochetes associated with CLD have great anatomical advantage. The way they are built allows them to live easily in viscous areas of the body, such as the mouth. The biofilm that forms over them makes them especially resistant to antibacterial treatments.
When You May Need To See A Specialist
Though a family physician or general practitioner should be able to order the diagnostic tests for Lyme disease, there are some situations in which you may need to see a specialist. For example, untreated or misdiagnosed Lyme can develop into chronic Lyme disease, which can then lead to complications such as arthritic or neurological symptoms. In these cases, patients may need to see the following types of specialists:
- Rheumatologist Chronic joint problems from Lyme disease may need the care of a physician who specializes in rheumatology.
- Neurologist Chronic Lyme can be associated with debilitating neurological symptoms that must be treated by a specialist.
- Infectious disease specialist Again, even though this isnt always necessary, it can be helpful if your symptoms dont go away or become more complex.
- Cardiologist In the event that you develop the rare but dangerous complication known as Lyme carditis, you may need to see a cardiologist and even be fitted with a temporary pacemaker.
However, its important to remember that seeing a specialist for symptoms related to Lyme disease without treating Lyme disease is costly and dangerous. In other words, a rheumatologist or neurologist will not be able to treat your Lyme if no diagnosis has been made. They can simply help treat symptoms that result from chronic or untreated Lyme.
To treat Lyme disease, you must get an accurate diagnosis and be prescribed antibiotics.
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The Different Types Of Doctors Who Can Test For Lyme Disease
Home » Tick Talk » The Different Types of Doctors Who Can Test for Lyme Disease
Lyme disease is a tick-borne infectious disease caused by a group of spiral-shaped bacteria we now refer to as Lyme borreliae. This includes, but is not limited to, Borrelia burgdorferi. It is treatable with antibiotics, but in order to have the best chance at full recovery, its crucial to get your disease diagnosed and treated as soon as possible. That means finding the right doctor.
But what kind of doctor tests for Lyme disease? You may be wondering if you need to see a specific kind of physician to get the right test and treatment. The answer can depend on your particular situation.
Why Lyme Disease Can Be So Hard To Diagnose And Treat
QUESTION: After feeling really miserable for many months, my doctor finally concluded I had Lyme disease. He put me on antibiotics for a month and my symptoms went away. But now that Ive stopped taking the antibiotics, Im feeling horrible again. Is this typical for Lyme disease?
ANSWER: Lyme disease can be difficult to treat especially when it is not identified right away.
It is caused by a bacterium called Borrelia burgdorferi, which is spread through the bites of tiny blood-sucking ticks that hide out in grassy meadows and wooded areas. The ticks originally pick up the bacteria from infected mice and deer.
Before the 1980s, Lyme disease was unknown in Canada and very few physicians have actually seen a case first-hand, says Dr. Gregory Taylor, Canadas Chief Public Health Officer.
The early symptoms are flu-like and can include fatigue, fever, chills, headaches and muscle pain. That could be virtually anything, says Dr. Taylor.
Some patients will get a distinctive bulls-eye rash around the site of the bite, but others do not.
The rather vague and varied symptoms add to the difficulty of making an accurate diagnosis. To make matters worse, the laboratory tests that check for the bodys production of antibodies to the infection can be difficult to interpret.
They are losing their jobs, their homes, their life savings everything, says Mr. Wilson, who was sick for three years before a doctor identified his symptoms as Lyme disease.
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What To Know About Seeing A Doctor And Getting Tested
Whatever kind of doctor you see, they will consider your medical history, your symptoms, and your Lyme disease test results when making a diagnosis. They should perform what is known as a differential diagnosis in order to rule out common misdiagnoses, such as Rheumatoid Arthritis, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, ALS, MS, etc.
Many doctors rely on the two-tier system recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which consists of the following two blood tests:
- EIA
- Western blot test
However, research shows that these tests are severely limited in accuracy and sensitivity. A LLMD may be able to help you get tested with newer and more accurate testing technology.
Lyme disease recovery starts with finding a doctor who has sufficient experience with Lyme as well as access to the right diagnostic testing. To learn more about what tests are available for Lyme disease today, including IGeneXs ImmunoBlot test, check out the blog The Best Test for Lyme Disease.
Few Conn Physicians Treat Chronic Lyme Disease
Only a very small number of physicians in Connecticut — the epicenter of Lyme disease — diagnose and treat patients with the controversial chronic form of this tick-borne infection, a survey found.
Among 285 primary care physicians surveyed, only about 2% treat chronic Lyme disease, and almost 50% don’t believe that chronic infection with the spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi exists, Michael Johnson, MD, and Henry M. Feder, Jr., MD, of the University of Connecticut in Farmington, reported online in the Journal of Pediatrics.
The remaining 48% were uncertain as to whether chronic Lyme disease is a valid condition.
Advocates of chronic Lyme disease believe that the infection can persist for months and even years, requiring long-term treatment with oral or intravenous antibiotics — a stance counter to the recommendations of the American College of Rheumatology, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Neurology, and the Infectious Diseases Society of America .
They have formed their own society, the International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society , publishing their own guidelines, and refer to themselves as “Lyme literate.”
To see how widespread acceptance of chronic Lyme disease is among clinicians in Connecticut, which has the highest incidence of B. burgdorferi infection in the country, Johnson and Feder sent a survey to a random sample of more than 1,000 physicians. The survey had a 39.1% response rate.
Disclosures
Recommended Reading: Whats Lyme Disease In Humans
Lyme Disease In An African American Child With Downs Syndrome
Welcome to another Inside Lyme Podcast with your host Dr. Daniel Cameron. In this episode, Dr. Cameron discusses the case of a 3-year-old African American child with Downs syndrome, developmental delays and disseminated Lyme disease. By Dr. Daniel Cameron “A case of disseminated Lyme disease in a child with skin of color” was published by Bax and colleagues in the journal Pediatric Dermatology.¹ The child, who had trisomy 21 (Downs
Internal Medicine & Primary Care Located In Frederick Md
Lyme disease is an unpleasant condition spread by the bite of the deer tick, and without expert assessment, it can be hard to diagnose. Usha Sivakumar, MD, MBBS, is a highly experienced physician at SivIMed Internal Medicine and Primary Care in Frederick, Maryland, who specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of Lyme disease. Call the clinic now if youre concerned you have the infection or book an appointment online.
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Infectious Disease Specialist & Internist Located In Hoboken Nj
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, studies suggest that the number of people diagnosed with Lyme disease each year in the United States is around 300,000. If youre bitten and experience unexplained joint pain and fatigue, schedule an evaluation at Advanced Infectious Disease Medical in Hoboken, New Jersey. Avisheh Forouzesh, MD, specializes in diagnosing and treating Lyme disease. Her office is well-equipped to remove ticks, test for Lyme disease, and treat existing infections. Learn more about treatment options for Lyme disease by calling the Hoboken office or using the online booking feature.
What Type Of Doctor Treats Lyme Disease
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Recommended Reading: At Home Lyme Disease Test
What Are The Best Tests For Lyme Disease
At the Carolina Brain Center, we recommend two tests. One is DNA Connexions, a urine test. The other is MacTech Imaging, a saliva test.
The DNA Connexions test identifies co-infections common to Lyme disease. MacTech Imaging picks up where the DNA Connexions test leaves off by giving doctors an idea of a patients overall microbial load. Each saliva sample is scanned for spirochetes and then given a graded score.
These two unique tests allow us to proceed confidently with treatment. Post-treatment analysis informs doctors as to whether a patient is clear.
What Treatment Options Are Available For Lyme Disease
In many cases, you can recover from Lyme disease if treatment occurs in a timely manner. If diagnosed with early Lyme disease, Dr. Forouzesh can prescribe oral antibiotics to fight the infection, which usually leads to a complete recovery.
If Lyme disease is already affecting your nervous system or joints, Dr. Forouzesh will determine if intravenous antibiotics are needed to treat the infection.
If possible exposure to Lyme disease is suspected, Dr. Forouzesh can evaluate you and provide information and advice on what treatment will be needed, as well as how to avoid future exposure to Lyme disease and tick bites.
Find out more about Lyme disease testing and prevention by calling the Hoboken office directly or booking an appointment online.
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Potential Barriers To Accepting A Lyme Disease Vaccine
Welcome to another Inside Lyme Podcast with your host Dr. Daniel Cameron. In this episode, Dr. Cameron discusses the potential barriers to the public’s acceptance and utilization of a Lyme disease vaccine. By Dr. Daniel Cameron The study, Understanding consumer and clinician perceptions of a potential Lyme disease vaccine, was published by Devchand and colleagues in the journal Health Education Research.¹ It has been two decades since the LYMErix vaccine
Request Your Consultation Today
If you or someone you know is suffering from any of the aforementioned symptoms, and have been unsuccessful in finding effective treatment or lasting relief, Dr. Heyman treats patients at his integrative medicine practice: the Virginia Center for Health and Wellness in Aldie, Virginia. For an appointment with Dr. Heyman, please call & phone , or contact us online today.
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Confronting The Misnomer Of Chronic Lyme Disease
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Studies suggest that around 300,000 people are diagnosed with Lyme disease each year in the United States, according to the CDC, with 14 states in the Northeast and upper Midwest accounting for 96% of reported cases. As the most commonly reported tickborne illness in the country, Lyme disease has grown in incidence and expanded beyond its historically endemic range in the last 2 decades.
The CDC estimates that 70% to 80% of patients with Lyme disease develop the telltale erythema migrans rash, but some patients may exhibit only symptoms of fever, fatigue or muscle/joint pain, which leaves physicians to piece together the diagnosis after confirming whether the patient was in a Lyme-endemic area. If symptoms are vague, physicians may order a blood test. If a diagnosis of Lyme disease is confirmed, patients should be prescribed a 2- to 4-week course of antibiotics, according to current Infectious Diseases Society of America guidelines.
H. Cody Meissner, MD,
The rise of chronic Lyme
First diagnosed in Connecticut in 1975, Lyme disease remained an etiologic mystery until the discovery of the spirochete, a corkscrew-shaped bacterium named Borrelia burgdorferi, which is primarily transmitted through the bite of the blacklegged tick, or deer tick .
Dangers of alternative therapies
Off the map
Consider all possibilities
- References:
Who Is At Risk For Complications Of Lyme Disease
People who do not know they have been infected. So its important to check for deer ticks after outdoor activitiesespecially in the northeast or midwest parts of the country.
Ticks sometimes bite in such inconspicuous places as the hairline or back. Lyme disease is treated with antibiotics at any stage of illness to eradicate the bacterial infection. However, some people might still be at risk for lingering neurological complications if the bacteria has traveled to the tissue of the central nervous system.
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