Lyme disease is the most prevalent tick-borne disease and is caused by the bacterial spirochete Borrelia. Using the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommended two-tier method, Garg et al., claim that 72 percent of individuals they examined classified "negative" by the CDC two-tier lyme disease test showed positive for the Borellia biomarker, and other microbes such as Babesia, Bartonella, and Ehrlichia.

That means some lyme disease patients do not follow the "one microbe, one disease" Germ Theory, according to an analysis of patients at different disease stages which found they respond to various microbes 65 percent of the time. And that ticks carry more than just lyme disease.

Though this will be latched onto by the Chronic Lyme Disease fringe, perhaps the Borrelia biomarker they identified can enhance the sensitivity of lyme disease diagnostic tests.

The authors believe this finding is controversial, or hope for it to be, University of Jyväskylä in Finland is not known for microbiology, but tick-borne diseases are a global health issue. Ticks are susceptible to multiple infections and can co-transmit several of those infections to a host. Since lyme disease is most common, 83 percent of all commercial tick-borne disease diagnostic tests are focused on lyme disease. If ticks bring the possibility of infection by more than one pathogenic agent, better testing will reduce the financial burden on patients, which ultimately means all taxpayers in the modern US healthcare system. 

Citation: K. Garg, L. Meriläinen, O. Franz, H. Pirttinen, M. Quevedo-Diaz, S. Croucher and L. Gilbert, Evaluating polymicrobial immune responses in patients suffering from tick-borne diseases Scientific Reports. volume 8, Article number: 15932 (2018) https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-34393-9