I want to congratulate [state Attorney General] Richard Blumenthal for sticking up for the infectious-disease doctors who do everything in their power to help the sometimes extremely sick Lyme and other tick-borne disease patients (BNH, November 27). I congratulate him for taking seriously a very serious health issue and for doing everything in his power to help the thousands of very ill people around the country to get the best and most comprehensive care that they need.
I do not congratulate the Infectious Disease Society of America for ignoring clinical research and treatment success stories from these experienced and highly esteemed doctors from all over the country and the world. I do not congratulate them for writing guidelines that are unrealistic because they do not follow the unfortunate reality of these illnesses. [Blumenthal last month issued a subpoena to the IDSA over guidelines that discourage long-term antibiotic treatment for Lyme disease.]
The story of these tick-borne diseases is still a mystery that needs to be unraveled. If we obstruct doctors from treating and patients from getting better, a couple of things may happen:
1) These tick-borne diseases will continue to be a mystery. The research into treatments and cures will slow because the research seem to be fueled by infectious-disease doctors' own success stories. But because of these new guidelines, everyone will be too afraid to do anything, which results in less research and more seriously ill people.
2) The incidence of curing or of getting the disease into remission will naturally fall, possibly causing millions of dollars being wasted in hospital bills because if the patient was allowed to be treated the right way at the beginning, there would be much less late-stage illness and fewer serious complications.
The incidence of these diseases will continue to rise because of the warm falls and winters and the rising number of deer and rodents. We could either ignore this health issue even though the incidence of these illnesses rises every year, or we could actually face it head on and figure out how to better diagnose it and how to better cure it.
For me, these new guidelines would not have worked. I would not be here today and would certainly not be able to write this if my doctor had followed these guidelines. Seven years ago I was 21 and could not walk, hold a conversation and could barely even form a cohesive sentence. Thanks to my doctor and to long-term antibiotics, today I can.
- Monica Frate
Darien
Posts: 1538 | From Planet Earth | Registered: Jan 2005
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bettyg
Unregistered
posted
good letter; different slant and well-presented!
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