January 19, 2005

Dr. Julie Geberding

Director

Centers for Disease Control

1600 Clifton Road

Atlanta, GA

Dear Dr. Geberding:

Two weeks ago the CBS news program 60 minutes aired a report on the case of Dr. James Short, a physician here in South Carolina, and the controversy which has developed in his case. He practices what is commonly called alternative medicine. Two patients of his died under highly questionable circumstances and as a result he is being investigated and faces possible criminal and civil actions. Part of the reports about him centered on his treatment of certain patients for lyme disease. I myself am ill with lyme disease and in my case it is incurable. I wrote a letter to the editor of 60 minutes in which I addressed the issues raised by the report about Dr. Shortt's treatment of lyme disease. At the same time I addressed the issues involved in the reporting, diagnosis and treatment of lyme disease nationally.

I bring that letter to CBS News to your attention because in it I discuss the role the Centers for Disease Control has played in the development of the present conditions in regard to lyme disease. The blunt truth is that we are at some point in an epidemic of a crippling and in many cases fatal infectious disease. Nobody knows where we are because the American medical profession and the public health agencies charged with protecting the health of the American people have failed the American people and failed the American people miserably. People are sick, disabled and dying of an horrendous illness and they cannot get treatment. Not only are they being denied diagnosis and treatment they are actually being abused.

A few weeks back a woman whom I know went to a doctor in Greenville, South Carolina. She has been ill with lyme disease for years and has suffered terribly. She is the patient of the one lyme literate doctor in either North or South Carolina who is willing to openly treat patients according to their needs. She wanted to find a primary care physician near her home who would have some knowledge of lyme disease. . She made an appointment and went in to see this doctor. The doctor started yelling at her to get out of his office and screamed at her that she was wasting his valuable time. This ranting went on for something like five minutes. The woman was in tears. The doctor told her that she would not find a doctor to treat her in Greenville and that she would not find a doctor to treat her anywhere in South Carolina.

That is nothing but the truth. Except in the rarest of circumstances people cannot get a proper diagnosis, much less get any adequate treatment for lyme disease in South Carolina. Huncreds of people have had to go out of state to recieve medical care that even recognizes this disease. I know of two cases where mothers have pulled ticks off of their small children, one of whom developed a bull's eye rash and they went to their pediatricians and were told that lyme disease is not a problem in South Carolina. Needless to say neither child recieved any treatment from either of these doctors. One doctor told a woman that I know that he was not going to waste his time on some bizarre illness of which he would see one example in a lifetime. When I told my doctor of twenty years that I had been diagnosed with lyme disease he told me I was crazy and asked me in a sarcastic tone of voice: ``Are you in pain all the time?'' The fact that I told him I was in pain all the time made no impresseion. He then entered in his notes ``Quote, lyme disease, Unquote.''

This situation does not just exist here in South Carolina but is common all over the United States. The medical profession is in a massive state of denial where lyme disease is concerned. This attitude is directly attributable to the positions taken by the Centers for Disease Control. Unfortunately the understanding of the Centers for Disease Control, public health agencies as a whole as well as conventional medical practice is ten to twenty years out of date as far as lyme disese is concerned. The positions of the CDC with regard to the diagnosis and surveilence of the disease, as clearly admitted by your newsletter of May 7, 2004, have no basis in either science or fact. They are intellectual gibberish of no use to anybody.

While my comments about the Centers for Disease Control are severe they are nothing but the plain truth. I bring this to your attention because the health of the American people, not politics or the health of the American insurance industry or the health of certain bureaucratic and professional egos is your moral obligation and professional responsibility. I would appeal to you to read the letter I have sent and to address the issues raised in it on the basis of science and human compassion. The American people have a right to expect nothing less.

Sincerely,

Thomas M. Parkman

4409 B Trenholm Road

Columbia, SC 29206

But ya left off one thing.

There should have been a P.S. at the end of the letter that said..

KISS MY GRITS!

Way to go Mr. Master of the English language!

I'm sooooooooooooooooo proud of you!

I know it had to take a lot of effort.....
and a lot of self control.
I know what you REALLY wanted to say & HOW you wanted to say it.!!

It's great to see the positive responses.
Especially to see Miss Tincup is back with us & giving her stamp of approval, too.

Didn't think of it earlier, but it would have been a good idea to send copies to whoever is now head of Health & Human Services, to the President, & Dr Frist(forgotten his title, may be Senate Majority Leader? from Tenn), & anyone else in high places.

We need a plan. We can't stop riding the buses because most of us can't ride them anyway.

We need a plan. Lots of smart people on this forum need to put their muddled lyme-infected heads together to figure it out. Mr. Parkman, who obviously can still put words together, could be our key.

We need a plan!
Lymelady

That letter is so bang-on I have goosebumps!!!! Thank you for writing and sending it.

I think we need to mail these letters to Oprah show too. Why not ask her if she is willing to investigate this also might not hurt to mention Amy Tan.

Yes send it to the President all of our local senators and congressmen. I will copy this and send it to mine if Thomas does not care.

Blessings!
Mule

Any typos and misspellings don't bother me; after all, our brain fog is so bad that our fingers don't cooperate with our minds anyway.

Thomas/others, see the post I made today here in medical ... needing your input on addressing LYME at next Monday's CONTINUED approval of nominee Michael Leavitt to be the NEW SEC. OF HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES.

Thomas, with what others put together on MY post, would you be willing to summarize their concerns as well as YOUR own so I can send it to Iowa's Sen. Chuck Grassley, the chair of this nomination committee for Leavitt?

I do not know who else is on this particular committee as Grassley's home page didn't list the names of them; they didn't have a quorom & I only heard 3-4 talk.

Let's try to address OUR LYME concerns to the future sec. of H&H. Thanks all!