������� By HILARY WALDMAN | The Hartford Courant ������� 10:55 AM EDT, May 1, 2008
Attorney General Richard Blumenthal has called an 11 a.m. press conference today to announce an agreement by the Infectious Diseases Society of America to "review and reassess" its guidelines on the treatment of Lyme Disease.
The agreement resulted from an anti-trust investigation launched by Blumenthal's office in 2006 to determine if members of the respected scientific society had let financial interests influence its guidelines for treating the disease, which is named for the Connecticut town where it was first identified.
The guidelines say that in most cases Lyme Disease is simple to treat and that a 30-day course of oral antibiotics should be sufficient to cure it.
Advocates on the other side of the highly contentious debate argue that the researches ignored conflicting evidence that Lyme Disease is difficult to diagnose, can persist for years and require treatment with antibiotics, sometimes intravenously, for six months or longer.
Since Blumenthal began his investigation two prominent medical groups, The American Medical Association � and the American Academy of Neurology, have published findings that agree with the infectious disease society's guidelines -- that there is no compelling evidence to support long-term use of antibiotics for long-term symptoms that some believe are connected to Lyme Disease.
Blumenthal has said in the past that he was concerned that the guidelines could promt insurance companies to deny payment for long-term antibiotic treatment.
More articles
Copyright � 2008, The Hartford Courant Posts: 227 | From South of the North Pole | Registered: Jan 2007
| IP: Logged |
By HILARY WALDMAN | The Hartford Courant 1:10 PM EDT, May 1, 2008
The controversial treatment guidelines for Lyme Disease will be subjected to an independent review under an agreement announced today between Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal and the organization the sets the guidelines.
The treatment standards came under sharp criticism after experts concluded that in most cases Lyme Disease is simple to treat and that a 30-day course of oral antibiotics should be sufficient to cure it. Advocates on the other side of the highly contentious debate argue that the researchers ignored conflicting evidence that Lyme Disease is difficult to diagnose, can persist for years and require treatment with antibiotics, sometimes intravenously, for six months or longer.
Blumenthal launched an anti-trust investigation in 2006 to determine if members of the respected Infectious Diseases Society of America had let financial interests influence its guidelines for treating the disease, which is named for the Connecticut town where it was first identified.
Blumenthal said today he had delved into the personal investment holdings as well as professional business arrangements of scientists who wrote the guidelines and found that there may have been conflicts, though he did not name specific researchers.
"What happened in this process, what made it so flawed, is it excluded information,'' Blumenthal said. "The cause of that excluding of evidence was financial concern.''
The treatment guidelines will remain in place while the review, which could take up to a year, is done.
Since Blumenthal began his investigation two prominent medical groups, The American Medical Association and the American Academy of Neurology, have published findings that agree with the infectious disease society's guidelines -- that there is no compelling evidence to support long-term use of antibiotics for long-term symptoms that some believe are connected to Lyme Disease.
Blumenthal has said in the past that he was concerned that the guidelines could prompt insurance companies to deny payment for long-term antibiotic treatment,
Posts: 393 | From Washington, DC | Registered: Jun 2005
| IP: Logged |
bettyg
Unregistered
posted
dancer, would you copy your entire post and replies, and paste to the MAIN BLUMENTHAL POST with all the replies so we can have EVERYTHING about this monumental VICTORY FOR LYME PATIENTS IN ONE SPOT? thanks my friend!
IP: Logged |
The Lyme Disease Network is a non-profit organization funded by individual donations. If you would like to support the Network and the LymeNet system of Web services, please send your donations to:
The
Lyme Disease Network of New Jersey 907 Pebble Creek Court,
Pennington,
NJ08534USA http://www.lymenet.org/
UBBFriend: Email this page to someone!
![[group hug]](graemlins/grouphug.gif)
![[kiss]](graemlins/kissing.gif)
Printer-friendly view of this topic