I'm delighted to report that a British billionaire, John Caudwell, whose entire family has Lyme, has been on a national TV programme with millions of viewers talking about the major issues -
-insensitivity of the current test (we use the C6 Elisa followed by the western blot and our public health agency tells doctors that chronic Lyme does not exist)
-probable mass prevalence totally missed by current serology-based testing
-links with Alzheimer's, MS, ME/CFS
Posted by duncan (Member # 46242) on :
It will be interesting to see how the NHS will respond. Don't want to lose sight, though, of the fact this poor guy is fighting for the health of his entire family.
He arguably has at his disposal enough $'s to easily eclipse what the NHS and NIH and CDC spend on Lyme research combined.
I am not sure, but I think he tested outside of the NHS 2T, in Germany.
The NHS could ignore him, but that is unlikely because he appears eager to engage the world about what's going on.
They can try to discredit the source or means of his diagnosis, if indeed he was not positive by NHS protocol.
If he was positive by NHS protocol, then this might present with an entirely different set of "problems" for mainstreet Lyme, UK-Style, if treatments prove inadequate. Remember, it's not just this billionaire diagnosed with Lyme; it's his entire family.
Could very well be multiple species involved here, too. Nine years elapsed since the son first got sick? That's a lot of time for the rest of his family to be exposed to many ticks with multiple Bb species and other TBDs.
Curious to see how prevalent Lyme is in that part of the UK, recognizing reporting measures there probably make ours look good - and we all know how bad ours are. One way around this might be to check canine incidence where he lives.
With the money on the table, this could be a global debate. However it plays out, one can only hope he gets competent help, and he and his family beat Lyme.
Posted by A.G. (Member # 44713) on :
This is about a man's entire family's demise and destruction due to Lyme (as I am experiencing in my own family).
I'm not concerned about how it can help me at the moment. It's a tragedy.
"Great publicity coup for us"- I disagree.
Posted by Keebler (Member # 12673) on :
- "Sadness, desperation shines a light yet"
maybe something like that?
It can be hard to write a perfect sentence that properly conveys the family's ___ yet they are trying to correct injustice in medicine. I can't get words to come together just right. -
Posted by duncan (Member # 46242) on :
Plight?
Does that come to mind because of "light" and "right"?
Probably does a little to convey trying to grapple with an entire family wracked with Borrelia, but falls short of the struggle to correct a terrible wrong in medicine and society.