Tuesday 10 January 2017

OVER RELIANCE ON LYME DISEASE TESTS CAUSES HEALTH BURDEN

Flunk the Lyme test? Just wait and get sicker 


"Sin Lee, a pathologist and scientist, believes the deck is stacked in the quest to air new ideas on Lyme disease.
Too many science journals telling him to take his research elsewhere. Too many deftly worded rejections. Too little inclination to engage in a fair fight over the facts and fiction of Lyme disease.
Dr. Lee’s experience is shared by many researchers I have interviewed, in the U.S. and Europe, in five years of writing about a disease on which scientific debate is limited and tightly controlled. Some 380,000 Americans were infected with the tick-borne spirochete in 2015, leaving 20,000, by conservative estimates, with unresolved joint pain, cognitive lapses, fatigue and other problems. Another 232,000 are estimated to be infected annually in Western Europe. Many suffer because of a poor test and delayed diagnoses, issues that have been largely dismissed in mainstream journals."
Go to this link to read this excellent in depth article in full -
Thanks to the Huffington post for publishing this article written by Mary Beth Pfeiffer investigative journalist who is writing a book, 'The First Epidemic,' on the global spread of ticks and the diseases they carry.

Lyme disease reporting by Mary Beth Pfeiffer
September 7, 2016: CDC Says Fewer Suffer After Lyme Disease. Doesn’t Say, If Treated Early.

July 16, 2016: Go-To Lyme Drugs Don't Always Kill The Bug

May 30: 2016: ‘Quiet Plague’ Claims Another Celebrity
April 5, 2016: Lyme Time Is upon Us Again
Major installments in Poughkeepsie Journal series No Small Thing, 2012-2015
August 19, 2012: Lyme disease: Antibiotics Fuel Debate

October 21, 2012: Flunking the Lyme disease test Dicey path to Lyme diagnosis Centers for Disease Control says tests 'almost always' correct, but the pitfalls are many  

CDC researcher answers questions on disease, tests 

November 18, 2012: Counting the Lyme disease toll; Cases soar in the Northeast; CDC admits undercounting but declines 'epidemic' labelhttp://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/story/news/health/lyme-disease/2014/03/21/lyme-counting-imprecise/6698009/

December 23, 2012: Babesiosis and the blood supply: Tiny tick, big threat http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/story/news/health/2014/03/24/lyme-babesiosis-threat/6699087/

December 24, 2012: The next tick scourge:Dutchess at center of rising tick threat http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/story/news/health/lyme-disease/2014/03/21/lyme-dutchess-tick-threat/6699395/
2013
May 19, 2013: Chronic Lyme disease: Is it real? 
Sidebar: Lyme emails request took five years; officials blame scope and fee waiver

Sept. 15, 2013: Doctors Bucking Lyme Protocols

Sept. 22, 2013: Battle shifts over Lyme disease 

Oct. 6, 2013: Lyme deaths: 9 in N.Y., 5 in valley

Dec. 23, 2013: Sudden Death: Beacon father, husband, 38, is 1 of 3 killed by Lyme disease heart condition; warning issued
2014
Aug. 4, 2014: Dogs, horses show high rates of Lyme disease
http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/story/news/investigations/2014/08/02/bitten/13313003/

Aug. 5, 2014: Lyme Disease Treatment Cost Soars
2015
May 31, 2015 Review of Lyme disease treatment leaves out patients