Most children recover from Lyme disease within 6 months, study finds

ByRose Weldon

Fact checked byCarol L. DiBerardino, MLA, ELS

Key takeaways:

Some patients with Lyme disease report prolonged symptoms after treatment.
Most children recover from the disease within 6 months, although more than one in five reported longer symptoms.

Most children diagnosed with Lyme disease recover within 6 months of receiving antibiotic treatment, regardless of their clinical presentation, according to findings from a study published in Pediatric Research.

The remaining patients who experience prolonged symptoms after their infection is treated are likely to go on to achieve a full recovery, researchers found.

IDC0523DeBiasi_Graphic_01 — Data derived from CDC.

Lyme disease is the most common vector-borne illness in the United States, accounting for nearly 500,000 cases each year, according to an estimate published in 2021. It is most common in the Northeast and upper Midwest regions, although the areas of risk are expanding, according to the CDC. It is treatable with antibiotics.

“In 10 years, we have probably seen about 1,000 children with Lyme (at our hospital), and we have found that because people don't have good sources of information, they often use the internet, and the internet often gives them misinformation, which leads them to be very fearful about Lyme and often seek some nonstandard care,” Roberta L. DeBiasi, MD, MS, chief of infectious diseases at Children's National Hospital in Washington, D.C., and a co-author of the new study, told Healio.

“We felt that there really needs to be more actual data so that families and patients can look at what actually happens to kids in real life and be able to use that as their information when they're trying to find treatments,” she said.

DeBiasi and colleagues surveyed 102 children who had fully recovered from Lyme disease within the last 10 years before enrollment. Along with their parents, the patients completed questionnaires regarding health-related quality of life, physical mobility, fatigue, pain and cognitive impact.

“The hypothesis was that we would likely find a lower rate of what is called post-treatment, Lyme disease syndrome,” DeBiasi said. “But we really wanted to be sure that was the case, or if not, figure out what the actual incidence is in children, because ... there are not many studies that look specifically at children. It's usually a mixed population of adults and children in some of the studies.”

According to the surveys, 87% of patients reported full recovery within 6 months after completing antibiotic treatment, including around two-thirds of who recovered within the first 3 months.

The other 13% took longer to recover, and the researchers found that, at the time the study was completed, “6% of children still experienced symptoms attributed to Lyme disease and 1% experienced symptoms significant enough to impair daily functioning.”

“We did have a percentage of children who did have persistent symptoms, but the good news was that even in those children, it eventually resolved,” DeBiasi said. “By the time that the study was completed, there were very few children who had any residual symptoms.”

She said the benefits and risks of being outside and in the fresh air “far outweigh the risk of acquiring Lyme disease to begin with.”

“The take-home message is that it’s a treatable illness, particularly in children, with a very low incidence of prolonged symptoms,” DeBiasi said.