A North Carolina State University researcher has discovered that Bartonella (a common Lyme co-infection) can be passed to unborn babies, causing chronic infections and possibly birth defects.
Our Gratitude List: 2009 has been a remarkable year for the Lyme community. Here are some things we're grateful for this Thanksgiving season.
Bestselling author Rebecca Wells offers a new book, a website, and a poignant account of her life with Lyme disease.
On Thursday, July 30, 2009, the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) Lyme Disease Review Panel will conduct a daylong hearing, required under an antitrust settlement between the IDSA and the Connecticut Attorney General. Patients, researchers and physicians from both sides of this hotly debated topic will present testimony to the panel in Washington, DC. The Attorney General’s investigation of the IDSA revealed the 2006 guidelines panel members had widespread commercial conflicts of interests and had excluded peer-reviewed scientific evidence supporting chronic Lyme disease. The new panel is charged with evaluating the scientific basis of the guidelines, which currently deny patients access to antibiotic therapy – the only treatment option available for chronic Lyme disease. Health insurers rely on the IDSA guidelines to deny medical reimbursements. State medical boards use them to launch unprofessional conduct actions, placing physicians who continue to treat chronic Lyme disease at risk of losing their licenses.
Greenwich, CT, January 28, 2009-Patient groups voiced concern and disappointment about the new Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) Lyme disease guidelines’ panel, which excludes physicians who treat patients with chronic Lyme disease. Last May, the Connecticut Attorney General found the IDSA Lyme disease treatment guidelines’ panel had conflicts of interest, engaged in exclusionary conduct, and suppressed scientific evidence. The investigation resulted in a settlement forcing the IDSA to reconstitute a balanced panel free of conflicts of interest under the oversight of an ombudsman to monitor conflicts of interest. No input from patients or treating physicians was permitted in selection.
Greenwich, CT, January 28, 2009-Patient groups voiced concern and disappointment about the new Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) Lyme disease guidelines’ panel, which excludes physicians who treat patients with chronic Lyme disease. Last May, the Connecticut Attorney General found the IDSA Lyme disease treatment guidelines’ panel had conflicts of interest, engaged in exclusionary conduct, and suppressed scientific evidence. The investigation resulted in a settlement forcing the IDSA to reconstitute a balanced panel free of conflicts of interest under the oversight of an ombudsman to monitor conflicts of interest. No input from patients or treating physicians was permitted in selection.
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