Medical
Revisionists Threaten Effective Lyme Treatment
DR.
RAPHAEL B. STRICKER
HARTFORD
COURANT
July
31st, 2006
A small
group of scientists is turning the world of Lyme disease on
its head. They deny the existence of chronic Lyme disease.
They insist
there is no "credible scientific evidence" for persistent
infection after a short course of antibiotic treatment because
the corkscrew-shaped bacteria that causes Lyme disease, Borrelia
burgdorferi, cannot survive this treatment.
Fearing
"over-diagnosis," they publish guidelines endorsing
an insensitive testing program that misses half the patients
with the tick-borne illness.
Fearing
"over-treatment," they recommend antibiotic therapy
barely adequate for acute infection and wholly inadequate for
chronic Lyme disease.
Soon they
will publish the latest version of an already restrictive set
of guidelines that will further pressure the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention and academic institutions to ignore chronic
Lyme disease. The guidelines will encourage insurance companies
to embrace up-front cost savings inherent in shorter treatment
and deny payment for longer treatment, even if the Lyme patient
is still sick but showing signs of improvement.
Although
the Lyme denialists claim support from mainstream medical groups,
the reality is that the handful of them have managed to dictate
policy to larger health care organizations through a closed
process that rejects dissenting views. Unaware of this one-sided
process, the rest of the medical industry blindly follows their
lead while patients suffer.
Lyme disease
is the most common tick-borne illness in the world. Named after
the town where it was discovered in 1975, the disease is transmitted
by the bite of an infected tick. Research has demonstrated that
the Lyme bacteria is one of the most invasive and elusive pathogens
known to man. After causing a telltale "bulls-eye"
rash, the bacteria screws its way into multiple organs and tissues
to produce often-debilitating muscle, joint, nerve, brain and
heart ailments.
Although
New England remains the epicenter of the disease, with up to
20 percent of new cases reported in Connecticut alone, Lyme
disease and associated infections are popping up in new locations
around the globe. Where you live doesn't accurately reflect
your risk of catching Lyme disease because people travel on
planes, trains and automobiles, while ticks travel on deer,
birds and household pets. As a result, the risk of acquiring
the disease is increasing unpredictably.
We know
treatment is effective when instituted early, but fewer than
half the people with Lyme disease even remember getting a tick
bite or seeing a rash. The resulting infection may spread and
become chronic before the victim has a chance to seek treatment.
Research
over the past two decades suggests the key to eliminating chronic
Lyme disease is prolonged antibiotic therapy. Lyme-treating
physicians recognize this fact and studies support it.
The Lyme
denialists refuse to accept this point of view.
Imagine
if "AIDS denialists" had won out in the early 1990s.
Doctors would have refused to prescribe antiviral medications
and insurance companies would have refused to pay for them.
How many millions of patients would have gone undiagnosed and
untreated?
Sound scary?
Welcome to the world of Lyme disease run by Lyme denialists.
Today many
Lyme patients are going undiagnosed and untreated because of
the Lyme denialist agenda. Although Lyme disease is usually
not fatal, the disability associated with a chronic case is
equivalent to congestive heart failure.
Health
care providers, government agencies and Lyme patients must confront
the Lyme denialists and fight for better recognition and treatment
of Lyme disease.
Raphael
B. Stricker, MD, of California is president of the International
Lyme & Associated Diseases Society.
Article
published on the HARTFORD COURANT. July 31st, 2006.
[
