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On Tuesday, Alexis Ohanian, a Reddit cofounder and Serena Williams' husband, announced on X that he was diagnosed with Lyme disease after getting a "full battery of health scans."
Despite having no symptoms and spending "so little time in the wilderness/northeast," Ohanian said his bloodwork came back positive for Lyme disease and he's now being treated with antibiotics.
Diagnosing Lyme disease is complicated. Its symptoms, like fever and chills, can resemble many other health issues. Other people, like Ohanian, might not have symptoms at all.
According to Johns Hopkins, many people with Lyme don't have a target-shaped tick bite — one of the easiest tells. Additionally, most people contract Lyme through nymphs, immature ticks that are less than two millimeters in size.
Diagnostic tests are often unreliable, especially in the early stages of the disease, because they measure the presence of antibodies, rather than Lyme bacteria itself. While there are many at-home tests on the market, false negatives are common.
More extensive bloodwork, such as the one Ohanian received, can be expensive: complex blood panels can cost up to $3,000.
Getting proper treatment for Lyme disease is important, as the long-term effects can range from severe arthritis and life-threatening heart complications.
Still, there's a lot of controversy around treating Lyme. While antibiotics, like the ones Ohanian plans to take, work for some people, others continue to display symptoms of post-treatment Lyme disease, even when Lyme tests become negative. Because there's only one way to test for Lyme, treating chronic Lyme disease symptoms is complicated — and some doctors question if it's real at all.
About 15% of people worldwide are affected by Lyme disease, yet treatment remains difficult. Some companies are now testing vaccines to prevent the disease altogether.
