(American College of Physicians-American Society of Internal Medicine) -- A study of 118 people with clinically diagnosed early Lyme disease showed that most had a red rash with central redness, not a "bull's-eye" with a clear central area ringed by red, which has been the textbook description of the Lyme disease rash.

One-third of the patients also had flu-like symptoms, such as low-grade fever, headache, muscle ache and tiredness. The patients were enrolled in a multi-state trial of a Lyme disease vaccine and were trained to look for signs of Lyme disease. All went to a physician within about three days of probable infection with Lyme disease. Most patients responded to 14 to 30 days of antibiotics.

An editorial focused on the surprisingly wide variation in antibiotic prescribing for early Lyme disease. The writers say, "(T)here is no evidence that treatment with more than two weeks of antibiotics improves the prognosis, which in any case is excellent."