LYMEPOLICYWONK: Should the IDSA take a Tip from Toyota and Recall the Guidelines?
Another run away Prius hit the news today. I have one (first year). I share these concerns. Is this car safe? Should I really be driving it? Have they recalled my model? It made me think about the IDSA Lyme guidelines a bit. Why haven’t they recalled these guidelines? They actually harm patients. The real risk to patients is not that they will have the risk of a reaction to their antibiotics, it is that they will be treated under these guidelines. That they will remain ill. That the diagnosis will be missed. That the treatment when it comes will be too little, too late. That the medical society responsible for the high, high treatment failure rates will do nothing more than circle the wagons around their self interests. That patients matter less than vaccine and diagnostic test patents and preserving the reputation of a medical society that does not even have patients on the agenda.
Look, car manufacturers are not at the top of the consciousness scale—they frequently put profits before consumer safety. It’s called capitalism. But medicine is supposed to be something different. It is supposed to put the interests of patients first. And, medical guidelines have a responsibility to all of the patients out there who are suffering under the weight of what a few experts with commercial interests think is “right”.
Who cares most about patients? Surprise. It is the patients. And the patients have voted. In a CALDA survey of Lyme patients, 63% were initially treated under IDSA protocols. 68% were not restored to health. 60% of these improved with additional treatment. And, drum roll, a FULL 80% of patients would not elect to be treated under these guidelines. Who do these guidelines serve? Well, the patients in the survey do not think these guidelines serve them. What do you think? Drop me a line.
You can follow additional comments on Lyme policy at www.lymepolicywonk.org. You can contact Lorraine Johnson, JD, MBA at lbjohnson@lymedisease.org.
Lorraine, you hit things on the nail head again! great article; just what we all have been thinking for quite some time.
"a FULL 80% of patients would not elect to be treated under these guidelines. Who do these guidelines serve?
Well, the patients in the survey do not think these guidelines serve them. What do you think?"
Yes, I FEEL THAT WAY!
The only folks being served are the IDSA infectious drs. who UNDERTREAT us, who PROFIT from their patents, grants, & other "conflicts of interest" that Conn's AG Blumenthal found and called them on last year.
It's NOT all of us who have PAID OUT OF POCKET for our lyme/co-infection treatments lasting longer than 3 wks. up to years of antibiotics, supplements, & other therapies tried!
THAT IS WHAT HAS BANKRUPTED MAJORITY OF LYME FOLKS & LEFT THEM HOMELESS & SUICIDAL!
you bet i'm MAD at idsa for their reckless, UNCARING behavior!
it's too bad that we can NOT VOTE OUT IDSA drs. like we do our politicians!!
shaking my head in disbelief again and again….
disgusted BettyG, iowa lyme activist
See my post on the last article. In short, this is because Lyme is a MILITARY BIOWEAPON. A guidelines review will change nothing if at the end, someone in black sunglasses and gloves can just walk in and "remind" them that it's an issue of "national security."
Google "Spirochete Warfare" and do some research on the EIS, to which a HUGE number of steerites belonged at one point (Steere, Barbour, Burgdorfer."
Get "Under The Eightball" shown in your town.
Check out these links:
Undertheeightball.com
http://www.lymecryme.com/Japans_Secret.pdf
Proof members of the Borrelia genus were weaponized AS FAR BACK AS THE 30's.
http://www.ctlymedisease.org/pdf/bbinfectiousagent.pdf
Shows it wass killing gov. scientists who INHALED it years before Burgdorfer "identified" it.
http://www.freshpatents.com/Methods-for-identification-of-bioagents-dt20091022ptan20090263809.php
Right there, for all to see. Bb listed as a bioweapon.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2546682/
Why induce MUCOSAL IMMUNITY to Bb if it's only from ticks?
Especially disturbing in light of Bb's presence in urine, semen, and tears as well as blood:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WozrCFW0mRM
– at about 45 in.
More on human-to-human transmission (hint: It's an STD that has gone 30 YEARS not being treated as such.)
http://www.anapsid.org/lyme/bach.html
http://www.ilads.org/files/harvey.pdf
These are the real issues here. Why is no one addressing them?
(Accidentally reported my own comment. was looking for a way to edit it.)
When IDSA loses a multi-million dollar malpractice suit for wrongful death under their guidelines, that's when things will change, and no sooner.