[eigenloss]

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1195970/

You can detect Lyme in the bloodstream, but it's much easier and hundreds of times cheaper to look for the human immune response - IgG and IgM - with a Western Blot or ELISA. The actual Bb spirochete is so dilute in the blood that a PCR test (costing upwards of $5k) is typically the only thing that will definitively detect it.

The "getting serious" bit is a policy request: why is the federal or state government paying so little attention to an issue that affects and injures hundreds of thousands of people per year?

[sooheon]

There's all these linked stories of people suffering for years not knowing definitively what they have, a 5k test to diagnose for sure seems like a bargain. I don't understand why the CDC says chronic lyme doesn't exist and suffers claim they think it does but they don't know for sure. Why not settle it with a real test?

[eigenloss]

$5k is hardly a bargain when your insurer refuses to cover it. For some people, $5k is about the cost of replacing their car 10 times.