Mark your calendars! There are number of important Lyme disease events that are happening in Berkshire County, MA this month. I feel that these events show that Lyme patients in the Berkshires are beginning to get organized and building energy for change. Please join our efforts. I have been putting up posters for many of these these events in both Berkshire as well as neighboring Colombia county. If anyone is available to help me poster, please contact me at [email protected].
Fairview Hospital is sponsoring a ``Forum on Lyme Disease'' diagnosis and treatment which is being held at 7:00 pm on May 24th, 2011 at the Daniel Arts Center, Bard College at Simon's Rock, 84 Alford Rd., Great Barrington, MA 01230. Fairview has invited four physicians to speak: Kari Bovenzi, MD (pediatrician), Barry Elson, MD (Medical Director of Northampton Wellness), Kenneth B. Liegner, MD (co-author of Coping with Lyme Disease), Tom Moorcroft, DO (practitioner of holistic medicine in Connecticut) Contact: Deborah Golden Alecson, HYPERLINK "mailto:[email protected]" [email protected] or Geraldine A. McQuoid RN, MA, MSN at HYPERLINK "mailto:[email protected]" [email protected]
This is an important event because, the majority of physicians in Berkshire County follow the highly conservative IDSA (Infectious Disease Society of America) guidelines for diagnosis and treatment of Lyme disease. I believe that these highly conservative guidelines leave a significant portion of Berkshire County Lyme patients undiagnosed and under-treated, resulting in a growing population with treatment-resistant chronic Lyme disease. The ILADS (International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society) treatment guidelines allow for much more clinical discretion for both the diagnosis and treatment of Lyme disease and recognizes the existence of chronic Lyme disease. A forum which supports a open dialogue about about these issues could go a long way towards changing the current medical climate in the Berkshires and perhaps Massachusetts at well. I expect the question and answer session at the end of the forum to be very lively.
One of the organizers of the forum, Deborah Alecson MS, runs a newly organized Lyme disease support group in Great Barrington, named ``Ticked Off in the Berkshires.'' Deborah wrote several very poignant articles on the difficulties that Berkshire County Lyme patients are having with getting diagnosed and treated, which was published in the Berkshire Record last fall. Deborah's email address is [email protected].
The first meeting of a new Lyme disease support group named the ``Lyme Alliance of the Berkshires.'' is meeting on Thursday, May 19th from 6:00 to 7:00 pm at the Adams Free Library, 92 Park Street Adams, MA 01220. This group is being organized by Kenneth Mercure. The contact info for this group is the [email protected]. The web site for this group is http;//berkshirelyme.blogspot.com.
The Lenox Library Association is sponsoring a talk entitled, ``Ick, a Tick! -- Lyme Disease Discussion'' on Sunday May 22nd from 4:00 to 5:00 pm at the Lenox Library, 18 Main Street Lenox, MA 01240. ``This presentation will talk about tick-borne diseases in the state: the cause, the cure, and the controversy. Learn how to avoid being infected, and what to do if you are. There will also be discussion about recent and pending legislation at the state level.'' Contact: Sharon Hawkes (413) 637-2630, x115 [email protected]. Web site: http://www.eventkeeper.com/code/events.cfm?curOrg=LENOX.