Antibiotics for Lyme Disease

The dosage of antibiotic given and the duration of treatment should be based on your age and body weight, how bad the illness is, and how you respond to treatment.

Doxycycline should be taken with plenty of fluids and not while you are lying down or right before bedtime.

If you get intravenous (IV) antibiotics, you may have weekly blood tests to check your white blood cell count. The IV antibiotic treatment may lead to low levels of white blood cells (called leukopenia) that can make it hard for you to fight infection.

With the exception of pregnant women and people with severe arthritis or heart problems, most people who have been exposed to ticks but do not have symptoms are not given antibiotics. Even in parts of the country where Lyme disease is known to occur often, the risk of getting Lyme disease is too small to warrant treatment before symptoms appear.

Doxycycline is the drug of choice for treating early Lyme disease in people ages 8 and older. But it should not be given to pregnant women or to people who are allergic to tetracycline.

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