TOUCHED BY LYME: "300,000" number catches media's eye
When the CDC bumped its estimate of annual Lyme cases from 30,000 to ten times that, it made the evening news.
I blogged last week about the unprecedented wave of recent media coverage about Lyme disease. Turns out, we hadn’t seen nothin’ yet.
On Monday, August 19, the CDC announced that it had raised its official estimate of how many cases of Lyme disease are diagnosed each year, from 30,000 to 300,000. (No matter that way back in 2004, the CDC stated on the record that official numbers were likely underreported by a factor of 10. Suddenly, putting that big number—300,000—in an official government press release made the news media sit up and take notice.)
All the major news outlets carried the story, some of them going into deeper detail than others. Here are links to a sampling if you want to check them out yourself.
Poughkeepsie Journal
San Francisco-area TV station KTVU
In addition to a news story, the Poughkeepsie Journal (in New York state) ran an editorial entitled “Lyme fight must go beyond change in numbers.” In addition to having more accurate reporting of cases, the newspaper suggests a number of changes:
That would include providing doctors with more protections if they are treating long-term cases of Lyme. It also would include establishing a federal advisory committee to ensure that all medical points of view are being represented before public health policy decisions are reached in relation to Lyme.
Sound proposals have been offered for years, but little action has been taken. Armed with new numbers, advocates must continue the fight for a better and broader fight against Lyme.
Hear, hear.
TOUCHED BY LYME is written by Dorothy Kupcha Leland, LymeDisease.org’s VP for Education and Outreach. Contact her at dleland@lymedisease.org.
I am a Lymie. I am positive in hoping this will get the ball rolling for us Lymies to get treatment. We are dying here and it took how long to get the CDC to tell us that they had made a mistake? Now that its all over the news and everyone knows more Lymies will come forward, we know a ton of people are getting diagnosed unprofessionally and the wrong diagnosis.
All the attention is wonderful, and it’s a great opportunity for Lyme associations to “ride the wave”. We’re taking this time to announce our organization’s 10th anniversary and I feel confident that we’ll get better coverage now, due to the CDC’s announcement. We’ve also been asked to do another segment on a local TV talk show to be taped on Monday, and they cited the need to have another segment on Lyme due to the CDC’s numbers.
It’s NOT all in our HEADS, dangit it’s all over inside our bodies from head to frikin’ toe, even if the test says it’s not.
It’s time for doctors to “Listen” to their patients and stop second-guessing us. We know how we feel, they don’t.