I'd like to point out that there are not different treatments for different strains at this point in time - hopefully one day! But this might explain why some have such a hard time healing and have to use many different things before finding what works.
The actual title of the article:
"Differences in Genotype, Clinical Features, and Inflammatory Potential of Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto Strains from Europe and the United States "
Abstract
/Borrelia burgdorferi/ sensu stricto isolates from patients with erythema migrans in Europe and the United States were compared by genotype, clinical features of infection, and inflammatory potential. Analysis of outer surface protein C and multilocus sequence typing showed that strains from these 2 regions represent distinct genotypes.
Clinical features of infection with /B. burgdorferi/ in Slovenia were similar to infection with /B. afzelii/ or /B. garinii/, the other 2 /Borrelia/ spp. that cause disease in Europe, whereas /B. burgdorferi/ strains from the United States were associated with more severe disease. Moreover, /B. burgdorferi/ strains from the United States induced peripheral blood mononuclear cells to secrete higher levels of cytokines and chemokines associated with innate and Th1-adaptive immune responses, whereas strains from Europe induced greater Th17-associated responses.
Thus, strains of the same /B. burgdorferi/ species from Europe and the United States represent distinct clonal lineages that vary in virulence and inflammatory potential.
*Free, full text*:
dx.doi.org/10.3201/eid2205.151806