Lyme Disease Prophylaxis by Single-Dose Doxycycline in the United States, 2010-2020

Grace E Marx; Alyssa Beck; Cate Corey; Candace C Fuller; Nicole Haug; Jenice S Ko; Dave Martin; Alison F Hinckley

doi:10.1093/ofid/ofae593

Lyme Disease Prophylaxis by Single-Dose Doxycycline in the United States, 2010-2020

Open Forum Infect Dis. 2024 Oct 29;11(10):ofae593. doi: 10.1093/ofid/ofae593. eCollection 2024 Oct.

Authors

Grace E Marx¹, Alyssa Beck², Cate Corey³, Candace C Fuller⁴, Nicole Haug³, Jenice S Ko⁴, Dave Martin⁵, Alison F Hinckley¹

Affiliations

¹ Division of Vector-borne Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA.
² Department of Epidemiology, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, Colorado, USA.
³ Sentinel Program, US Food and Drug Administration, Silver Spring, Maryland, USA.
⁴ Department of Population Medicine, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
⁵ StatLog Econometrics, Inc, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

Abstract

Single-dose doxycycline after high-risk tick bites can prevent Lyme disease, which disproportionately affects children. We described single-dose doxycycline dispensings in an outpatient cohort in the United States. During 2010-2020, a total of 427 105 patients received ≥1 dispensing(s); most were aged ≥65 years. Lyme disease postexposure prophylaxis may be underprescribed for some groups, including children.

Keywords: Lyme disease; PEP; doxycycline; postexposure prophylaxis; tick bite.

Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Infectious Diseases Society of America 2024.