Dr Holly Ahern has written an insightful opinion piece for the Poughkeepsie Journal on the present politics of Lyme disease.

From Dr Richard Horowitz

Dr Holly Ahern has written an insightful opinion piece for the Poughkeepsie Journal on the present politics of Lyme disease. As she explains in her article, there is abundant peer-reviewed scientific evidence (confirmed by clinical experience by many ILADS physicians), that persistent borrelia and co-infections are in part responsible for ongoing symptoms in chronically ill individuals. Patients are suffering tremendously from Lyme and associated tick-borne diseases, and these infections are spreading in epidemic proportion. Physicians must be allowed to use their best clinical judgement to treat patients for this debilitating illness without fear of retribution from medical boards, especially because the IDSA guidelines promulgated by insurance companies do not work in clinical practice for patients with persistent disease. A CDC survey published last year also showed that over 50% of physicians in the United States do not follow IDSA guidelines, but instead follow the peer reviewed published ILADS guidelines, because they are more effective in clinical practice for their sick patients.
Dr Ahern appropriately calls for an updated review of the present guidelines, and this should be done in a scientific forum where doctors, researchers, scientists, politicians, health advocates and insurers come together to discuss the rapidly changing science of Lyme and associated co-infections. I have found that the multifactorial MSIDS model is better suited for these chronically ill patients with complex presentations.
http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/story/opinion/valley-views/2014/06/14/lyme-disease-patients-chronic/10533911/

Views: Give Lyme victims same rights as other patients

Considerable scientific evidence indicates that short-term antibiotic treatment leaves a significant proportion of patients with Lyme disease sick and disabled.

POUGHKEEPSIE JOURNAL