Mycoplasmas and related bacteria respond to certain antibiotics, particularly of the tetracycline family. Antibiotic therapy may not bring rapid, dramatic results. It is more common for the return of health to be gradual. Treatment must be tailored to the sensitivity of the individual patient's system, the severity and duration of the disease, or other concurrent infections. Even severe and long-term disease will respond to antibiotics.
Treatment is long-term, and in some cases is continued for the patients lifetime.
It is safe, effective treatment, but generally not an immediate cure. If the infection hypothesis proves to be correct, treatment of RA will need to be completely revised, and the consequences for the pharmaceutical industry will be enormous. It could become unethical to use steroids, or agents which block prostaglandin synthesis, as we cannot be sure that they do not promote proliferation of the organism, and so in the long term lead to more severe disease. Instead we will need to devise antibiotic regimens and immunotherapeutic protocols. To contact The Roadback Foundation click here.