(Can anyone on Lymenet highlight this? This is the best I can do today-----sorry.)

The following is not fair and balanced reporting. Where are the "real" journalists at the NY Time?

This article was emailed to me from my LL/FNP (family nurse practitioner) & ILADS member.

Here's the e-mail & article.

_____________________________________________

Yesterday there was an article on Lyme in the NY Times and we'll all up in arms about it of course! For those of you who like to express your frustrations through writing, there are tips below the article on points to emphasize when you write your letter to the editor!

ARTICLE:

New York Times, New Jersey edition

Sunday October 24, 2004

Jersey/Neil Genzlinger

"What Bites? Some Cheap Medical Advice"

This may be the first newspaper column ever published in late October that involves blood-sucking but has nothing to do with vampires or Halloween.

It all started about three weeks ago when I noticed an ugly reddish-purple insect bite behind my left knee, bigger and more insistent than any mosquito bite would be. I immediately feared the worse, that I was again late to the groovy-diseases party.

See I never get illnesses or conditions when they're trendy. My exceedingly painful 18-month bout with tennis elbow, for instance, came along years after tennis was cooling, during that dreadfully bland Sampras era. So I had a sinking feeling that this bite and the fever that arrived at the same time were signs of unhip, forgotten Lyme disease.

No one talks about Lyme disease anymore. West Nile virus, now there's a disease. Adult attention deficit disorder is all over the magazine covers. Even the lowly flu has more cachet than Lyme disease at the moment. Bloomfield has made national headlines with its vaccine lottery. Lyme disease? Puh-leeze, don't be so 90's. Or was it 80's?

"It's not quite as trendy as it used to be, but yes, Lyme disease still exists, and the number of cases described continues to rise," Dr. Leonard H. Sigal, who has been studying Lyme disease for 23 years, told me over the phone. "The geographic distribution of the disease is expanding. It just doesn't get quite as much press as it used to, but it's still there, and it's still a problem, and you still see people with real, bona fide, documented problems."

Dr. Sigal, a clinical professor of medicine and pediatrics at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, said New Jersey has historically had high Lyme numbers, with Hunterdon County a hotbed, Somerset catching up, and Ocean, Monmouth and other counties also represented. The disease is passed along by deer ticks, which of course hang out with deer, and so Dr. Sigal has no problem identifying the culprit: developers.

"What they do is, they scallop properties out of the forest," he said. "What they're doing is putting the person right on top of the deer's habitat. And by leaving an area of brush or scrub between the forest and the backyard lawn, what they're doing is providing optimum tick environment.

That statement more or less described my own yard. And Dr. Sigal told me that although spring and summer are the prime seasons for Lyme disease, those fateful bites can be delivered as late as December.

"The quote-unquote `Lyme disease season' is defined by when the nymph is out there looking for a blood meal, and that's typically April-May until August-September," he said. "But at this time of year, when there are no nymphs, the adults are perfectly capable of giving you Lyme disease."

I could have done without the phrase "blood meal" but in general Dr. Sigal was giving me confidence in my self-diagnosis. What had really convinced me that I had been Lymed, though - indeed, that most of the state has been - was a list of symptoms I found on a National Institutes of Health Web site. Bite? Check. Fever? Check. Muscle pain? Check. Then this"

"Unusual or strange behavior."

Reading this symptom to my family, of course, brought a chorus of derision. "Well then you've had Lyme for years," they said, rattling off a list of my offenses - the fondness for a cappella music; the frequent watching of the History Channel; the insistence on removing labels from cans before throwing them in the recycling bin.

Doggone it, I said, they're right; I've had Lyme disease all along. And so, I realized, has practically everyone else here in the Unusual and Strange Behavior State. The governor's office, for instance, is crawling with it.

Dr. Sigal, though, was unenthusiastic about diagnosis-via-lists-found-on-the-internet.

"If you look at that list of 33 symptoms, everybody has a few," he said. "Unfortunately, what people do is, they read it and say, "Ah, I've got No. 1 and No 7 and No. 8 and No. 12, 13, 15; I kind of have No. 14,' and bingo, thev've got themselves a diagnosis of Lyme disease. And they go to a somewhat less-than-reputable-clinician, and Lyme disease becomes the explanation for all of their ailments and complaints. That way lies madness."

Maybe. In any case, chatting with Dr. Sigal gave me the incentive to do something I almost never do: go see my local doctor. He said he didn't think I had Lyme disease but gave me some pink pills anyway. Then he charged me only $5.

Talk about strange and unusual behavior.

(end of article, see comments below)

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Responses need to be sent to the NY Times, and also to

the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School regarding this article

(see contact information at conclusion)

Suggestions for Points to address in letters:

Cavalier View of Lyme disease as groovy disease, untrendy disease, "unhip, forgotten Lyme disease."
No one talks about Lyme disease anymore. [No one at NY Times will write realistically about LD]
"Lyme disease? Puh-leeze, don't be so 90's. Or was it 80's?" Figures skyrocketing each year, more articles in media than ever before - except the NY Times.
"Dr. Leonard H. Sigal, who has been studying Lyme disease for 23 years" - incorrect verb, correct "studying" to read "denying"
Dr. Sigal is listed in connection with Rheumatology and Connective Tissue Research at the Medical school site.
Many better persons for the columnist to have consulted, relating to Lyme disease.
"The disease is passed along by deer ticks, which of course hang out with deer," = = no mention of the two year cycle and the part that the mouse actually plays
" and so Dr. Sigal has no problem identifying the culprit: developers." = mice, and deer ticks, can be everywhere, even in the city, and there are many cases of city dwellers with Lyme disease who have never gone into the woods or lived at the edge or had anything to do with developers
""What they do is, they scallop properties out of the forest," he said. "What they're doing is putting the person right on top of the deer's habitat." Deer habitat is only part of the story - what about the mice? And the robins, (CDC reference) and the other vectors?
"The quote-unquote `Lyme disease season' is defined by when the nymph is out there looking for a blood meal, and that's typically April-May until August-September," he said. "But at this time of year, when there are no nymphs, the adults are perfectly capable of giving you Lyme disease." = WHAT Lyme disease "season??"
"Doggone it, I said, they're right; I've had Lyme disease all along. And so, I realized, has practically everyone else here in the Unusual and Strange Behavior State." = cavalier treatment of Lyme disease. Substitute the word "cancer" or "diabetes," or any other disease which also has the potential to disable or be fatal - would it be appropriate to treat the subject in a humorous manner?
"Dr. Sigal, though, was unenthusiastic about diagnosis-via-lists-found-on-the-internet." = the list was from the NIH website!
"And they go to a somewhat less-than-reputable-clinician, and Lyme disease becomes the explanation for all of their ailments and complaints. That way lies madness." There is a disconnect here. The implication is that in diagnosing by internet list, no medical testing will be performed. And who is more of a Less-than-reputable clinician, the physician who tests and treats, or the physician who is paid extremely large amounts by insurance companies to deny Lyme disease. See http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/frankd/sigal2.htm
"Q. The last page of the four page document marked as exhibit four indicates that you had spent eight hours and 40 minutes at a rate of $560 an hour

"He said he didn't think I had Lyme disease but gave me some pink pills anyway. Then he charged me only $5." = didn't "THINK" - didn't test, gave patient pink pills. Not aware Doxycycline came in pink. Author must have gone to a "less than reputable physician" if he was not tested and was given medication anyway, a medication other than the standard two capsules of Doxycline.
Other suggested themes to be addressed: New York Times was well aware both of the LDA Conference and the ILADS conference this past weekend (press releases faxed to newsroom editors and several reporters), as well as other Lyme disease news in the past, and the reactions to misinformation concerning the Stalking Steere article and the Gina Kolata article. Why print an article misleading the public that nothing seems to be going on anymore with Lyme disease or another misleading and false Lyme disease article?
The New York Times' historical bias against chronic Lyme disease and against reporting on the controversy.
The bad taste of mocking a disease that is chronic, debilitating, disabling, and sometimes fatal, and more.
The lack of knowledge of the reporter. The lack of knowledge of Dr. Sigal, who freely admits
Q. You're not trained in infectious diseases, are you?
A. No, I am not.

and

"A. I would not typify myself or describe myself as being a leading authority [in the field of Lyme disease diagnosis and treatment]. I would describe myself as having some knowledge about Lyme disease and some insights. I would be not so egotistical as to claim to be a leading authority."

see http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/frankd/sigal2.htm

19. Misleading the public that Lyme disease is something to be laughed about and to disregard the seriousness of it, not to even seek definitive testing.
20. Why does NY Times continue to choose to address the subject of Lyme disease on a less than factual basis?
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Contact information:
NY Times: see http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/lettertoeditor.html

RWJ see http://rwjms.umdnj.edu/about/administration.htm and
http://rwjms.umdnj.edu/about/overseers.htm and

Office of the Dean
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Dean's Page
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You know what I mean, make sure things are done RIGHT--------- according to the Scientific Method?

They'll have cots to lie down on, but will be needing lots of pain killers for what's to come.

Oh, silly me. What was I thinking? The pain is all in their heads! Duh!

'Dr. Janet and Mrs. Hyde'

Sounds like a good receipe for nourishing their pontines(a brain structure).