Doxycycline for Tick Bites — Not for Everyone

Recently, a panel of experts of the Infectious Diseases Society of America recommended that persons bitten by deer ticks (Ixodes scapularis) should not routinely receive antimicrobial chemoprophylaxis.1 This recommendation was based on an assessment of the risks and the consequences of Lyme disease, as well as the costs, adverse effects, and efficacy of antimicrobial prophylaxis. Should those recommendations change after the report in this issue of the Journal by Nadelman et al. of a well-designed trial in which a single dose of doxycycline was 87 percent effective in preventing Lyme disease?2 The results of the study confirm that . . .