The fight
against lyme
WTNH Hartford, CT
by Jocelyn Maminta of News Channel 8
29 Jan 2004
Hartford, CT —
Connecticut is on the front line in the fight against an advancing public
health threat. Lyme Disease is an epidemic in our state. Now patients, doctors,
and the state are working together trying to get it under control.
You can see the signs
of the fight against Lyme Disease in Newtown, where the community is feeling
the effects of the tick-borne illness. The ongoing debate across the state
about Lyme Disease is what led to a public hearing in Hartford. To get
a clear picture of what’s going on at the front lines Attorney General
Richard Blumenthal and Public Health Commissioner Dr. Robert Galvin are
listening to patients.
“The family
is having a rough time with it,” says Lyme Disease patient Ozzie
Biondi. “Financially it’s a burden and with all the psychiatric
problems that go along with it, it’s very, very tough.”
They’re also
hearing from doctors like Dr. Robert Levitz who say there are too many
misdiagnosed cases and ineffective therapies.
“The pendulum
swings both ways so that there are people who are misdiagnosed and not
diagnosed, and others who have other diseases who have Lyme Disease because
their symptoms sounded like it—they were fatigued, they had joint
pain,” Dr. Levitz said.
“We’re
really hoping to bring physicians together to promote a dialogue and to
promote discussion because there are so many controversies,” said
Kim Harrison, Connecticut Lyme Disease Coalition.
Also, they’re
hoping this will lead to more funding for testing treatment and controlling
the tick population.
“The federal
government ought to be a source of funding because this problem is bigger
than any single state,” Attorney General Blumenthal said.
But with no clear
consensus of what works and what doesn’t, the focus right now is
getting everyone on the same page.
Experts from the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and and National Institutes
of Health also took part in the public hearing.
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