REINFECTION IN LYME BORRELIOSIS

Two patients with reinfection of Borrelia burgdorferi are presented, A n 11-year-old girl developed recurrent acute peripheral facial palsy a t an interval of five years, A 64-year-old woman showed paraesthesia i n the leg and effusion in the knee, Three Sears later, an erythema mig rans developed at the thigh, In both patients tick bites, correspondin g clinical manifestations, and detection of specific antibodies proved the reinfections, The course of the humoral immune responses showed b asic differences between the patients, At the interval between the fir st and second infection, the specific antibodies of the girl decreased beyond the cut-off level, On the other hand, the titer of specific Ig G antibodies of the other patient remained at a constant level, Reason s for the failure of immune protection are discussed.