To investigate whether genetic diversity of Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto may affect the occurrence of hematogenous dissemination, 104 untreated adults with erythema migrans from a Lyme disease diagnostic center in Westchester County, New York, were studied. Cultured skin isolates were classified into 3 groups by a polymerase chain reaction amplification and restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) method. A highly significant association between infecting RFLP type in skin and the presence of spirochetemia was found (P<.001). The same association existed for the presence of multiple erythema migrans lesions (P=.045), providing clinical corroboration that hematogenous dissemination is related to the genetic subtype of B. burgdorferi sensu stricto. There were no significant associations between RFLP type and seropositivity or clinical symptoms and signs except for a history of fever and chills (P=.033). These results suggest that specific genetic subtypes of B. burgdorferi sensu stricto influence disease pathogenesis. Infection with different subtypes of B. burgdorferi sensu stricto may help to explain differences in the clinical presentation of patients with Lyme disease.

A single 200-mg dose of doxycycline given within 72 hours after an I. scapularis tick bite can prevent the development of Lyme disease.

The illness associated with HGE in these patients from the northeastern United States was more mild than that originally described in reports of HGE in the midwestern United States.

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