People who tested positive for antibodies to the Lyme disease bacterium were more than four times as likely as those who tested negative to also carry antibodies to another tick-borne germ, according to an analysis of 193,260 U.S. patients published Sept. 18 in JAMA Network Open, Quest Diagnostics announced.
Of those with Lyme antibodies, 29.5% also had antibodies to at least one other tick-borne pathogen, compared with 5.5% of people without Lyme antibodies. The overlap was most notable in the Northeast.
