Acknowledging that little is known about how Lyme disease is managed in Canada and what the longterm outcomes are for patients due to a lack of published data, these researchers set out to study 272 patients treated at more than a dozen healthcare facilities in two high-risk regions of Quebec in an attempt to get a handle on the situation.

This study covers a period between 2004 and 2017 and includes both adults and children whose diagnoses were confirmed by blood tests. Half of those patients were determined to be suffering from early disseminated Lyme disease and in 90 percent of cases treatment conformed to the 2006 guidelines set out by the Infectious Disease Society of America (IDSA). When treatment varied from those guidelines, it was typically because a doctor chose to treat the patient for a longer duration.

In almost every case studied, the patient's symptoms resolved with three months of receiving treatment. However in twenty-seven cases, patients developed Post-Treatment Lyme disease Syndrome (PTLDS) and the percentage of patients suffering from PTLDS increased over time.