Help Needed From All Connecticut Residents on Bill #5747
Bill #5747 introduced by Jason Bartlett (D-Danbury, Bethel, Redding) asks for the reinstatement of mandatory lab reporting of Lyme disease.
As of January 1, 2003 the CT Department of Public Health discontinued mandatory lab reporting in CT.
There were 4631 cases of Lyme disease reported in CT in 2002
There were 1403 cases of Lyme disease reported in CT in 2003
Currently this bill is sitting in the Public Health Committee (PHC).
In order to assure this bill moves forward, members of the PHC need to know that this bill is not scheduled for a vote. It is up to Chair of committe to decide what gets voted upon and #5747 was not chosen.
Every CT resident concerned about Lyme disease needs to contact MEMBERS of the Public HEALTH COMMITTEE and ask that they support this bill and bring it up before their committee for a vote to ensure this bill does not die in committee!! Please contact ASAP as voting of bills will start March 26th!
� Ask for support of bill #5747
� If your representative is on the PHC this is even more critical. Legislators are charged with representing the views of their constituents; that is us! Make sure they know that Lyme is a huge problem in this state and we want a commitment from them.
� Tell them why this bill is so important, (see below).
Please email Public Health Committee members today. Bill #5747 is critical because:
� Residents of Connecticut and the governing body need to know the true threat Lyme disease is to our state.
� The federal government relies on accurate statistics to determine risk of a disease, allocate research dollars, these numbers are also important to the general public to ensure they take preventative measures seriously.
� The Connecticut Department of Public Health has been negligent in protecting the citizens of CT against the threat of Lyme disease and without mandated legislation they will fail to take action.
The Connecticut Department of Public Health has promised on several occasions to reinstate this very important public health surveillance but have been disingenuous in implementing. We must now ask our legislators for help in making LYME COUNT!
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/
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