Lyme disease and tick-borne illness deconstructed by Infectious Diseases expert, Paul E. Sax MD, of episode 78 fame. Oh, Summer Nights. The time for romance between Danny Zuko and good girl Sandy, the time to sit in the backyard around the bonfire, the time for sunset hikes in the woods and mountains…..and don’t forget, it’s also the time for those pesky woodland ticks who’ll go for a ride on you and maybe suck your blood (gross!). Dr. Sax takes us through the essentials of tick-borne illness, with a focus on Lyme Disease: diagnosing it, treating it, identifying possible co-infections, and managing Post-Lyme residual symptoms.   Our (And Dr. Sax’s) Disclaimer about this episode, and the shownotes: Tick-borne illness is a very serious problem in public health in the US, but management is quite a controversial issue. We’ve done our best with this episode to stay as evidence-based as possible. Moreover, given the limited time we have on air, we have tried to focus on what we think is most clinically relevant. Full show notes available at http://thecurbsiders.com/podcast Join our mailing list and receive a PDF copy of our show notes every Monday. Rate us on iTunes, recommend a guest or topic and give feedback at thecurbsiders@gmail.com. Credits: Written by: Shreya P. Trivedi MD, Nora Taranto AB Produced by: Shreya P. Trivedi MD, Nora Taranto AB Editor: Matthew Watto MD Images by:  Hannah R. Abrams Hosts: Shreya P. Trivedi MD, Matthew Watto MD, Paul Williams MD Guest: Paul E. Sax MD Time Stamps 00:00 Intro 02:17 Disclaimer 03:19 Guest bio 05:17 Getting to know Guest 08:33 Favorite hiking experiences 12:20 Disclaimer of Tick-borne illness 12:28 Clinical case of recent hiking in endemic area with a rash 20:59 Lyme testing limitations 27:38 Patient education to doxycycline 30:16 Case of elderly outdoorsy healthy male with flu-like symptoms in the summer 32:39 Differentiating anaplasmosis and babesiosis 33:17 Workup for patient with possible tick co-infections 39:22  Post-lyme disease residual symptoms 48:02  Case of tick attached to patient 56:19  Outro Tags: lyme, disease, anaplasmosis, babesiosis, treatment, prevention, coinfection, doxycycline, paul, sax, infectious, diseases, nejm, harvard, pcr, antibody, tick, borne, illness, chronic, post, syndrome, removal, endemic, anatomical, assistant, care, doctor, education, family, FOAM, FOAMim, FOAMed, health, hospitalist, hospital, internal, internist, meded, medical, medicine, nurse, practitioner, professional, primary, physician, resident, student