Lyme Blog Posts
LYMEPOLICYWONK: What I told TBDWG about “two standards of care” for Lyme disease
I was selected to give verbal comments at today’s federal Tick-Borne Disease Working Group meeting. Here’s what I told them: There is considerable uncertainty in…
LYMEPOLICYWONK: Is shared decision making the wave of the future?
Medicare now requires “shared decision making” before it will pay for certain medical procedures. Shared decision making involves a balanced discussion between patient and physician…
An anthropologist’s view of Lyme disease and suicide
By Aaron J. Jackson It’s been almost a year since I tried to kill myself. As a doctoral student living in the leafy suburb of…
TOUCHED BY LYME: “Dropping rhymes” to target Lyme disease
The health department of Fairfax County, Virginia, has come up with an eye-popping (and ear-popping!) way to teach people about Lyme disease–a rap music video….
LYMEPOLICYWONK: Update on TBD Working Group. How did we do?
There have been a lot of questions raised about the federal Tick-Borne Disease Working Group and how the Lyme community has participated in the process….
TOUCHED BY LYME: No Lyme in the South? Guess again.
Kevin Wolfe of Alabama is the father of a son with Lyme disease. The boy suffered from intense pain, light sensitivity and an array of…
Why I can’t retire: too much Lyme work still to be done
By Phyllis Mervine I was just cleaning up files on my computer and found this series of vignettes I wrote 10 years ago. I’ll be…
TOUCHED BY LYME: 4th year of “Take a bite out of Lyme” campaign
Once again, the international grassroots social media campaign known as “Lyme Disease Challenge” has been in full gear this month, raising Lyme disease awareness in…
A new “stolen generation” –this time due to Lyme disease?
Every May 26, Australia observes “National Sorry Day,” a commemoration of the country’s mistreatment of Aborigines. It began 20 years ago, as a day of…
LYMEPOLICYWONK: Working to improve the diagnosis of Lyme disease
The Society to Improve Diagnosis in Medicine (SIDM) is a non-profit organization that focuses on the problem of diagnostic error. It works with patients and…
TOUCHED BY LYME: Letterman gives a tick to Seth Meyers on TV
In an unusual observance of Lyme Disease Awareness Month, comedian David Letterman visited “Late Night with Seth Meyers” with something unexpected in his pocket. It…
LYME SCI: Tick-borne viruses? We don’t know what we don’t know.
In November of 2016, when a five-month-old baby boy woke with vomiting and high fever, his parents took him to the hospital, only to be…