Purpose
The controversial diagnosis of chronic Lyme disease is often given to patients with prolonged, medically unexplained physical symptoms. Many such patients are also treated for chronic co-infections with Babesia, Anaplasma, or Bartonella in the absence of typical presentations, objective clinical findings, or laboratory confirmation of active infection. We have undertaken a systematic review of the literature to evaluate several aspects of this practice.
Methods
Five systematic literature searches were performed using Boolean operators and the PubMed search engine.
Results
The literature searches did not demonstrate convincing evidence of 1) chronic anaplasmosis infection, 2) treatment responsive symptomatic chronic babesiosis in immunocompetent persons in the absence of fever, laboratory abnormalities and detectable parasitemia, 3) either geographically widespread or treatment responsive symptomatic chronic infection with Babesia duncani in the absence of fever, laboratory abnormalities and detectable parasitemia, 4) tick-borne transmission of Bartonella species, or 5) simultaneous Lyme disease and Bartonella infection.
Conclusions
The medical literature does not support the diagnosis of chronic, atypical tick-borne coinfections in patients with chronic, nonspecific illnesses.