"Until we get a really objective review by an objective panel that's not all in Infectious Diseases Society of America's pocket, you are going to get the kind of thing you see with this, and that's a problem," Stricker said.
On the other side of the issue, Phillip J. Baker, executive director of the American Lyme Disease Foundation, said he was pleased by the outcome.
"I have always felt, and so did many of my colleagues, that the guidelines are based on firm and established evidence," Baker said.
Baker has sympathy for people suffering from the pain and fatigue associated with chronic Lyme disease.
"These people are suffering from something and no doubt they need proper medical care," he said. "But they are not suffering from a persistent infection that can be treated by long-term antibiotic therapy. They have something serious that needs to be treated, but it's not due to Lyme disease."
More information
For more information on Lyme disease, visit the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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