Combos for Lyme

The standard treatment for Lyme is, of course, good ol’ doxycycline. The downside is that it doesn’t always clear the infection completely (especially if it’s taken late), leading to persistent cases — aka “post-treatment Lyme disease.”

Tulane immunologists found that no single antibiotic could completely wipe out persistent Borrelia burgdorferi bacteria, but several combos did the trick. What combos, you ask?

• doxycycline and ceftriaxone (with or without carbomycin or loratadine)
• doxycycline and cefotaxime
• dapsone with either rifampicin or clofazimine

The more you know. (Bonus: It’s a “game-changer”!)

Take your glass half full and…

You know that relentlessly optimistic person whose sunny disposition eventually drives you nuts? Don’t judge so harshly — it might be because they have lower cognitive ability.

Despite what those self-help books might tell you…

Research from the University of Bath shows that excessive optimism is actually associated with lower cognitive skills such as verbal fluency, fluid reasoning, numerical reasoning, and memory. Whereas those high on cognitive ability tend to be both more realistic and pessimistic in their expectations about the future.

Yeah, you read that right: Smarter people are more realistic and pessimistic.

The brains of the 100-Acre Wood

Respiratory sitrep

The latest CDC data show that flu cases are rising across the country, while RSV — which has pounded Georgia’s emergency rooms — appears to be leveling off. Covid-19, meanwhile, “continues to cause the most hospitalizations and deaths among respiratory illnesses — about 15,000 hospitalizations and about 1,000 deaths every week.”

Syphilis drug shortage

While shortages of ADHD and cancer drugs get most of the coverage, the National Coalition of STD Directors is warning that there’s a shortage of Bicillin L-A (aka benzylpenicillin) — the primary treatment for syphilis and the only one for pregnant women.

The CDC says that yes there’s a shortage, but it doesn’t know of any cases where a pregnant woman couldn’t get it. But according to the NCSDDC, “health departments are hearing different information”: Women are getting it, but only 56% get it within a week.

This, of course, in the midst of a surge in syphilis cases across the country.

In the previous three months…

• 46% of clinics have attempted to order Bicillin L-A, but the drug was not available;
• 55% of clinics that had orders completely unfilled had more than half of their orders unfilled;
• 31% of clinics have received partially filled orders; and
• 40% of clinics have had their Bicillin L-A orders delayed.

Lilly’s weight loss drug hits shelves

Eli Lilly’s ticket onto the GLP-1 bandwagon has been punched, and the company’s Zepbound (tirzepatide) is heading to pharmacy shelves. It’s got a list price of $1,060 ($25 per month out of pocket) and will be available for a mere $550 a month to patients who don’t have health insurance but can afford that price tag.

In trials, Zepbound helped people lose more weight than Novo’s Wegovy — a whopping 20% of their weight compared to a measly 15% for Wegovy.

Quick takes

ICYMI: Cantaloupes of doom

If you don’t know where that cantaloupe came from, don’t eat it. That’s the message from the Georgia Department of Public Health in response to an outbreak of salmonella infections in sliced cantaloupe that has sickened at least five Georgians.

Elsewhere: Rite-Aid edition

Rite-Aid has given its pharmacists in California, Maryland, New Hampshire, Nevada, and Oregon permission to prescribe oral contraceptives (because state law permits it).