Lyme disease is an infectious disease caused by several species of bacteria that are transmitted to humans by deer tick bites. The most common tick-borne disease found more frequently in rural and suburban areas of the northeastern United States, Lyme disease produces a plethora of symptoms. Antibiotic therapy is the generally prescribed treatment, which relieves initial symptoms in the majority of people, but there is evidence that a deeper set of symptoms can result after antibiotic treatment, suggesting the development of an auto-immune disease.
Post-Antibiotic Evidence
According to the CDC, some patients have symptoms of Lyme disease that linger for years after initial treatment of antibiotics. The National Library of Medicine, a part of the National Institutes of Health, reports that "randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind trials testing antibiotics in patients with a stubborn form of Lyme disease ... whose symptoms persist after standard courses of antibiotics validate that these patients suffer significant pain and other disabling symptoms."
Arthritis Symptoms
A person can suffer from one or a constellation of arthritic problems manifesting as muscle and joint pain with stiffness most often felt in the large joints, especially the knees, accompanied by swelling and inflammation.
Neurological Symptoms
Some patients develop neurological symptoms if Lyme disease is left untreated, and these symptoms can linger years later, even after delayed treatment with antibiotics. Symptoms can take the form of fatigue, sleep difficulties, cognitive problems, tingling in extremities, difficulties with memory and concentration, numbness and shooting pains throughout the body. Also noted have been incidents of lympnocytic meningitis, Bell's palsy and sensory or motor disorders.
Auto-Immunity
There is evidence that lingering symptoms of Lyme disease take the form of an auto-immune disease or response, whereby the person's system develops symptoms and responds to the initial condition even after the infection appears to have been eradicated, according to the CDC's website on Lyme disease.
