This is a good thing. It will not always work because a typical chain of events goes like this: you go on a trip, you go hiking, you come home after the trip is over. You are tired and grouchy and you think you caught the flu on the airplane or at the airport. You have been bitten by mosquitoes whilst on your trip, so there are lots of red dots on your arms and ankles. You do not notice the red dot on the back of your leg that looks a bit different...

Now you have to decide whether or not you have Lyme disease or just the usual post-trip malaise.

If in doubt (and you hiked in an endemic area), go for the antibiotics. If they are given right away (<72hrs) a single dose of doxycycline can reduce incidence of the development of Lyme disease by ~87%.

Jan

Please do your own research before thinking that antibiotic treatment alone will cure Lyme.