Positive, concrete diagnosis in the field of vector-borne diseases has been a recurring problem. One of the biggest issues with Lyme disease is the misdiagnosis rate. This is hard to estimate accurately, but with chronic Lyme mimicking the symptoms of other, more common chronic disorders, misdiagnosis numbers are believed to be in the hundreds of thousands globally. Testing for vector-borne diseases (those spread by ticks, mites, lice, and fleas) can be a complex procedure, especially if the initial bite that caused the infection was not noticed immediately. Without specific telltale signs on the site of the bite, many of the initial symptoms of Lyme and other infections are generalized and hard to pin down. Compounding matters is the fact that if the tests are conducted too early in the disease’s lifecycle, they can often return false negatives. This is a recurring problem with disorders initiated by the Rickettsia pathogens.
