NEWS: Lyme disease bill advances in Virginia Legislature
25th January 2013
It would require people getting tested for Lyme be informed that a negative test result doesn't mean you don't have the disease.
In the accompanying photo from the Richmond Times Dispatch, Lyme Disease patient Christina Perera, 30, from Mechanicsville, VA is overcome with emotion as she speaks for SB971. Sponsored by Sen. Richard H. Black, R-Loudoun, the bill later passed the Senate Education and Health committee at the General Assembly Building in Richmond, VA.
The bill calls for every person getting tested for Lyme disease be given the following disclosure:
YOUR PHYSICIAN HAS ORDERED A LABORATORY TEST FOR THE PRESENCE OF LYME DISEASE FOR YOU. CURRENT LABORATORY TESTING FOR LYME DISEASE CAN BE PROBLEMATIC AND STANDARD LAB TESTS OFTEN RESULT IN FALSE NEGATIVE AND FALSE POSITIVE RESULTS, AND IF DONE TOO EARLY, YOU MANY NOT HAVE PRODUCED ENOUGH ANTIBODIES TO BE CONSIDERED POSITIVE BECAUSE YOUR IMMUNE RESPONSE REQUIRES TIME TO DEVELOP ANTIBODIES. IF YOU ARE TESTED FOR LYME DISEASE, AND THE RESULTS ARE NEGATIVE, THIS DOES NOT NECESSARILY MEAN YOU DO NOT HAVE LYME DISEASE. IF YOU CONTINUE TO EXPERIENCE UNEXPLAINED SYMPTOMS, YOU SHOULD BE RETESTED PERIODICALLY AND YOU SHOULD CONTACT YOUR PHYSICIAN IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS OR CONCERNS.
According to the Times Dispatch, there was more than an hour of testimony on the bill. “More than 100 supporters, among them Lyme sufferers who had initially tested negative for the disease, showed up in the hearing room. Physicians said the General Assembly should not intervene in telling physicians how to practice medicine. In a mixed vote, the committee approved Senate Bill 971, which now heads to the full Senate.”
Bill on school resource officers heads to Finance Committee
Legislation would place representative in all Va. public schools
Lyme disease victim Dawn Wilson watched as the Senate Education and Health Committee passed a bill relating to the disease Thursday.
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GENERAL ASSEMBLY COVERAGE: Follow the latest news and updates from the 2013 session of Virginia's General Assembly.
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Posted: Friday, January 25, 2013 12:00 am | Updated: 10:28 pm, Thu Jan 24, 2013.
A bill that would place a school resource officer in every Virginia public school is heading to the Senate Finance Committee.
Senate Bill 1240, sponsored by Sen. R. Creigh Deeds, D-Bath, was one of a number of bills that the Education and Health Committee sent Thursday to the powerful panel, which is the chamber’s arbiter of fiscal impact and public policy.
The bill — inspired by the December school shootings in Newtown, Conn. — would require every school board in Virginia to coordinate with local law-enforcement agencies to staff every school with at least one officer.
Two Senate bills that would allow home-schooled students to participate in public school athletics were passed by until the next committee meeting, while similar legislation in the House of Delegates passed the test at the subcommittee level.
With the help of one GOP senator on the Republican-controlled committee, lawmakers approved and referred to Finance Senate Bill 993, sponsored by Sen. John C. Miller, D-Newport News, which would require schoolchildren between kindergarten and eighth grade to get at least 30 minutes of physical activity a day.
The committee passed two bills to further regulate doctors. Senate Bill 898, sponsored by Sen. Bryce Reeves, R-Spotsylvania, would make it mandatory for the Board of Medicine to impose a five-year revocation of the license of a doctor who engages in sexual contact with a patient, removing the discretion from the board and the ability of the physician to apply for reinstatement after three years.
Committee chairman Stephen H. Martin, R-Chesterfield, allowed more than an hour of testimony on a bill that would require physicians to distribute information to patients on the reliability of testing for Lyme disease. More than 100 supporters, among them Lyme sufferers who had initially tested negative for the disease, showed up in the hearing room. Physicians said the General Assembly should not intervene in telling physicians how to practice medicine. In a mixed vote, the committee approved Senate Bill 971, which now heads to the full Senate.
