Focus – Opinions and Features

Jennifer Platt gave the following public comments at the federal Tick-Borne Disease Working Group’s Sept. 12 web-based meeting. I’m Jennifer Platt from Pittsboro, North Carolina. I have my doctorate in public health from UNC and I am co-founder of Tick-Borne Conditions... Read More »

By Paula Jackson Jones On Thursday, Sept. 5, I was invited by Sen. Susan Collins to testify at the United States Senate Aging Committee hearing on the TICK Act: An Urgent Public Health Response to Tick-Borne Diseases. It was not an easy task for me to summarize my personal story... Read More »

By Michelle McKeon If you have never experienced the traumatizing effects of Lyme, take my word, it is a complete nightmare. I spent years in pain, battling confusing symptoms and feeling as though I had very little control over my life after antibiotics failed to improve my... Read More »

One thing Lyme disease teaches us relentlessly is where we hold stress and tension in our bodies. There’s always something legitimate to feel stressed about – especially for those of us in the long process of healing from chronic Lyme. (Bio weapons, anyone? I haven’t yet... Read More »

By Briana Zellner Ticks can be hosts to many different infectious diseases including Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain spotted fever. However, you may not be familiar with another important tick-borne disease called tularemia. Tularemia, or rabbit fever, is caused by the bacterium... Read More »

by Michelle Bentley, Royal Holloway  (The University of London) The House of Representatives has instructed the Pentagon to disclose whether it used ticks to infect the American public with Lyme disease between 1950 and 1975. The allegation comes from Chris Smith, a Republican... Read More »

By Daniel A. Kinderlehrer MD I have been practicing medicine long enough to be very skeptical of “breakthroughs.” But disulfiram may be the real thing. Let’s keep our fingers crossed. Anyone who reads the financial pages has heard of Steven Cohen, the multi-billionaire hedge fund... Read More »

By Brittany Harrison I’m excited to share my journey of recovering from Lyme disease and other chronic illnesses. I hope my experience can inspire and help others. The story is a bit depressing at first, but I’m recovering now, so don’t worry! I’m actually sitting at the DMV as I... Read More »

By Marjo Valonen, MD It was the happiest moment of my life, to hold my twin babies for the first time. I am so glad that I didn’t know what was ahead of me: that I would be bedridden and seriously ill for years. That I couldn’t walk, play with my kids, or have the strength to... Read More »