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American Morning

Antibiotics Can Prevent Onset of Lyme Disease

Aired June 13, 2001 - 11:37   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: There is also news about lyme disease. For the first time, doctors have shown that a quick dose of antibiotics can prevent the disease. The drug has to be taken within days of a tick bite. About 15,000 cases of lyme disease are reported each year in the United States, and joining us with more on this study is CNN medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Thanks for being with us.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Thank you.

PHILLIPS: All right, well, let's start out with these antibiotics and how they have been used in the past to treat lyme disease.

GUPTA: That's an important point. These antibiotics have been used for quite sometime to treat lyme disease. This paper was just released today, and it was actually released early because of the importance of this, and this shows that for the first time, these antibiotics do work. Up to 87 percent of the patients improved, did not get lyme disease if taking these antibiotics within 72 hours of removing a tick.

What we're talking about here is a very small percentage. Only about 3 percent of people who actually get a tick bite from this specific kind of tick will actually go on to develop lyme disease, even if they're untreated. But with treated group .8 percent. So less than a percent of people actually developed lyme disease if they received these antibiotics within three days.

PHILLIPS: OK, so how do you go about using the antibiotics because I have always been told your body can become immune to them, right, if you take too many or too often?

GUPTA: That's an important point. These antibiotics are not vaccines. They're not -- they should not be used as vaccines. There are certain areas of the country where lyme disease is particularly prevalent. The Northeast, 92 percent of the cases actually occur in the Northeast.

That doesn't mean that because you are going to Northeast, you should take these antibiotics as a prophylactic. What they're saying is that if you find a tick bite, and you remove the tick, within 72 hours, if you take these pills, doxycycline, two pills, then you greatly reduce your chance of actually developing lyme disease. So, those pills could be used at that time, remove the tick, take the pills, but not before that.

PHILLIPS: All right, we're learning about these antibiotics, now how serious is lyme disease?

GUPTA: Well, lyme disease can potentially be very serious. Most times, it's not. Most times, it can just be a little skin rash, a little redness of the skin after a tick bite. But 60 percent of the time, what people complain of is significant joint pain, arthritic- type pain that can linger for many months if not years.

About 15 percent actually develop neurological problems, meningitis; some people complain of facial nerve palsies, where part of their face actually gets paralyzed. Kids have complained of orbital nerve, the nerve that supplies the eye, actually causing blindness in lyme disease. About 5 percent of the time, people actually develop cardiac problems, such as heart block or even an arrhythmia of your heart.

So, it can potentially be very serious, but most times, it's not. And again. I should reemphasize here, only 3 percent of the time after a tick bite will people go on to develop lyme disease.

PHILLIPS: Small percentage.

GUPTA: Small percentage.

PHILLIPS: All right, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thanks so much,

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