NOT RECOMMENDED!
Due to the high number of patient complaints and the
Number of chronically ill, disabled and those who have suffered and died
After being misdiagnosed and/or improperly treated for tick borne diseases
We do not recommend the following people and places...
NOT RECOMMENDED
American Lyme Disease Foundation (ALDF) Doctor Referral Site
(For Information)
(All Facilities- For Treatment or Information)
Infectious Diseases Society of America Members
(ALL States- For Information)
(For Anything Lyme Or Concerning Your Children)
Anyone Listed on This IDSA Website
(For Treatment or Information)
(For Information)
NOT RECOMMENDED!
Connecticut
Dr. Eugene Shapiro- Pediatrician- Yale University
Debra Alder-Klein at Stamford Hospital
Robert T. Schoen at Yale-New Haven Hospital
Debra Adler-Klein at Stamford Hospital
Maryland
Paul Gisbert Auwaerter, M.B.A., M.D.
Johns Hopkins
Clinical Director, Division of Infectious Diseases
Professor of Medicine
Expertise: ...read more
ALSO NOT RECOMMENDED- Maryland
Syed S, Hosain- Westminster, MD
Co-Authored CDC Report To Convince Doctors Treating Chronic Lyme Disease Is Dangerous- June 2017
ALSO NOT RECOMMENDED- Maryland
Dr. Joseph Weidner
101 Colonial Way, Suite A
Rising Sun, MD 21911-2272
QUOTE- "A civil jury awarded more than $1.7 million Monday to a Port Deposit teen who suffers long-term health problems because local physicians failed to diagnose his Lyme disease. This is believed to be the highest award of damages in Cecil County history, according to veteran lawyers and court officials." Source
Massachusetts
**Dr. Robert Kalish- Lyme Disease Clinic Tufts Medical Center, Boston, MA**
Massachusetts
See quotes directly from Boston Children's Hospital Here
QUOTE- July 2016- "A group of doctors from Boston Children's Hospital's Division of Infectious Diseases wrote to legislative leaders, "Well-designed studies have shown that administration of additional or prolonged courses of antibiotics confers no benefit to patients who have had a standard course of accepted treatment for Lyme disease." Link Here. **
Massachusetts
**Christina Hermos
Quote- July 2016- Christina Hermos, a pediatric infectious disease doctor at UMass Memorial Children's Medical Center, wrote to lawmakers, "Not only is the use of long-term antibiotics contrary to the best evidence about Lyme, but it also puts our patients and community at risk for the very real risks of unnecessary antibiotic use." Hermos said only a small number of doctors prescribe long-term antibiotics to treat Lyme disease, and it can cause harmful complications, such as infections, allergic reactions or drug-resistance to other diseases.
Link Here **
Massachusetts
**Daniel McQuillen
Quote- July 2016- "Far from improving the patient's quality of life, prolonged antibiotic therapy may actually increase the patient's suffering," society president Daniel McQuillen wrote to legislators. McQuillen called the treatment "unproven and potentially unsafe." Link Here **
Massachusetts
** H. Cody Meissner- Tufts Medical Center- Pediatric Infectious Disease
** QUOTE- “The evidence is fairly clear at this stage that there are no benefits from a prolonged course of antibiotics beyond what is generally recommended by IDSA guidelines,” Meissner said in an interview. “Whatever the explanation, PTLDS is not responsive to additional antibiotics, which, unfortunately, has led to some very unorthodox therapies that physicians are trying to discourage.”
“The media coverage of chronic Lyme disease is almost sensationalism, and has resulted in many people expanding upon what we recognize as Lyme disease to include symptoms that are likely not a result of the disease or even the infectious process,” H. Cody Meissner, MD, chief of the division of pediatric infectious disease at Tufts Medical Center, said in an interview.
“In cases of PTLDS, oftentimes there is nothing abnormal on the physical exam nor laboratory values that can be used to guide us in the diagnosis; therefore, we don’t know if this subjective syndrome is any more common after Lyme disease than other infectious disease or if it occurs among people who don’t have Lyme disease,” Meissner noted. “While we recognize that these symptoms can be functionally disabling, how often do these symptoms occur in someone who does not have Lyme disease?” Source Here
Michigan
Dr. John L. Pfenninger
His office, Medical Procedures Center, is located in Midland, MI. This cutsie little article can do more damage than 50 uniformed doctors do in one day. It appears to come straight from the CDC/IDSA manual and is a perfect example of how not to treat Lyme patients. He is one reason true Lyme literate doctors are in so much demand.
New Jersey
Infectious Diseases- Chilton Medical Center- Pompton Plains, NJ
**Watch his 1-4 minute video clips for more discouraging information**
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWbhc9JUpxk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TRp2iKNvis
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvBoGMeVU-c
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9dfc4fITik
New York
Gary Wormser, Robert Nadelman and John Nowokowski
Lyme Disease Diagnostic Center, Valhalla, NY
ALSO NOT RECOMMENDED- New York
Manhattan infectious-disease doctors- Laura Fisher, Christopher Busillo and Chester Lerner
Most infectious-disease specialists are concerned that extensive treatment is potentially dangerous, and claim they are awaiting the results of more studies before they offer antibiotic (or often any) treatment.
Westchester County- Gary Wormser, Robert Nadelman
Nassau County, NY- Eileen Hilton, Sunil Sood
Bruce Logan at Manhattan's New York University Downtown Hospital
Raymond Dattwyler- NY Medical College
New Hampshire
Dr. JEFFERY PARSONNET- QUOTE: "It can be an uphill battle getting politicians to side with science when sick patients testify that long-term antibiotic treatment helped them, said infectious disease physician Dr. Jeffrey Parsonnet, who testified against a New Hampshire doctor-protection bill.
"It is all focused on either siding with the big, rich doctors with their BMWs or this poor person who is suffering and misdiagnosed," said Parsonnet, a professor of medicine at Dartmouth Medical School." Source
Parsonnet was also on the fake IDSA review committee that, after the Attorney General's investigation into the guideline process found multiple conflicts of interest, declared the IDSA Lyme guidelines had no problems. He has recently been added to the new IDSA Lyme guideline panel.
NEW JERSEY
Thomas Argyros
Leonard Sigal at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School
North Carolina
Paul Lantos Duke University
QUOTE- "Virtually no one has died from Lyme disease..."
QUOTE- "Thus, the term ‘chronic Lyme disease’ doesn’t really mean anything."
Lantos, Paul- Lyme disease poses risk for patients visiting or living in the Northeast- June 27, 2011. Healio- Infectious Diseases in Children
Internal Medicine
Philadelphia, PA
License Number- MT205736
The two so-called doctors listed above are in Pennsylvania, the State with the highest number of reported Lyme cases in the USA. Yet, both have decided to hang tight to the IDSA's failed protocols and unbelievably inaccurate chronic Lyme disease theories.
If they can't understand the most common tick borne disease in the world how will they do with the more difficult medical conditions?
The Following Sites and Information Contained Within Are NOT Recommended
There are many articles and websites on the internet providing information about Lyme disease. Unfortunately, some are misleading, outdated, incomplete, questionable or inaccurate. Some were originally initiated or supported by those who have ties to Lyme tests and kits that are unreliable; the short-lived Lyme vaccine; those who have been involved with or promote research findings based on inaccurate Lyme tests; or the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) highly contested, "cost-effective", "insurance friendly" Lyme Treatment Guidelines that were determined by the Attorney General in Connecticut (Richard Blumenthal) to have been developed in a biased and unprofessional manner.
Therefore, for a number of reasons, the following articles, opinions and web sites are not generally recommended, especially by chronically ill Lyme patients and physicians experienced in dealing with the devastation caused by improperly diagnosed or inadequately treated Lyme and tick borne diseases.
NOT Recommended:
Infectious Diseases Society of America Lyme Disease Treatment Guidelines
http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/pdf/10.1086/508667
A Critical Appraisal of Chronic Lyme Disease- Paul Auwaerter (Hopkins), Stephen Dumler (Hopkins), Gary Wormser (Previously from Hopkins), Edward McSweegan (Not from Hopkins but listed as such), et al.
http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/357/14/1422
American Lyme Disease Foundation (ALDF)
http://www.aldf.com/about.shtml
Hopkin's Brian Schwartz- Lyme Treatment
http://www.hopkins-arthritis.org/arthritis-info/lyme-disease/treatment.html
Hopkin's John Meyerhoff- Lyme Treatment
http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/330178-treatment
Hopkin's Stephen Dumler- IDSA Guidelines Author
http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/microbiology/faculty/dumler.html
Hopkin's Paul Auwaerter- IDSA Guidelines Editor and Official Spokesman
http://myprofile.cos.com/pauwaert
Hopkin's Paul Auwaerter- Ten Clinical Pearls- Video
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/706378
Hopkin's Paul Auwaerter- Issues and Controversies- Video
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/706376
Hopkin's Paul Auwaerter- Experts Spar Over Treatment
http://www.acpinternist.org/archives/2007/01/lyme.htm
Maryland DHMH Information for Health Care Providers
http://www.edcp.org/vet_med/ld_hcpinfo.cfm
Advocacy Efforts of the IDSA
Working AGAINST improving the Lyme disease situation for patients and doctors.
Below are some of the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) advocacy efforts opposing state and federal legislation designed to: increase research funding to develop more accurate tests, establish task forces and committees to enhance education and communication between agencies and help chronically ill patients and the health care professionals treating them.
To see IDSA letters listed below, click here:
http://www.idsociety.org/lymedisease.htm#press
LETTERS:
IDSA Sends Letter Opposing H.R. 1179 06/25/2009
IDSA Sends Letter Opposing Enactment of Connecticut House Bill No. 5625 02/03/2009
IDSA Sends Letter Opposing Lyme Disease Legislation in House and Senate 3/21/2008
IDSA Sends Letters to the NGA and NCSL Regarding Problematic Lyme Disease Legislation 08/07/2007
IDSA Urges the Massachusetts Joint Committee on Public Health to Oppose House Bill 3768 07/12/2007
IDSA Sends Letter Urging Rhode Island State Senators to Amend Joint Resolution 5676 06/19/2007
IDSA Urges Pennsylvania State Senators to Oppose Enactment of Lyme Disease Legislation 04/10/2007
IDSA Sends Letter to Educate Members of Congress on our Lyme Disease Guidelines 01/07/2007
NOT RECOMMENDED
Save your money! KNOW in advance who will NOT treat you for chronic Lyme disease. Quoted in their own words, from the American Lyme Disease Foundation (ALDF) website, a sister organization to the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA):
"None of these organizations or expert panels, as well as the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) or the National Institutes of Health (NIH) recommends extended antibiotic therapy for the treatment of a condition known as “chronic Lyme disease”. http://www.aldf.com/physicianReferral2.shtml
The Infectious Disease Society of America (IDSA) Lyme disease guidelines have lists of additional treatment possibilities and protocols that are NOT RECOMMENDED for patients, going far and above other guidelines where a physician’s opinion, knowledge and skill and a patient’s choices are considered paramount when making medical decisions.
QUOTE- “Because of a lack of biologic plausibility, lack of efficacy, absence of supporting data, or the potential for harm to the patient, the following are not recommended for treatment of patients withany manifestation of Lyme disease: first-generation cephalosporins, fluoroquinolones, carbapenems, vancomycin, metronidazole, tinidazole, amantadine, ketolides, isoniazid, trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, fluconazole, benzathine penicillin G, combinations of antimicrobials, pulsed-dosing (i.e., dosing on some days but not others), long-term antibiotic therapy, anti-Bartonella therapies, hyperbaric oxygen, ozone, fever therapy, intravenous immunoglobulin, cholestyramine, intravenous hydrogen peroxide, specific nutritional supplements, and others (see table 4) (E-III). [Pg. 1094, Section Therapeutic modalities not recommended.]
Table 4. Selected antimicrobials, drug regimens, or other modalities not recommended for the treatment of Lyme disease.
Doses of antimicrobials far in excess of those provided in tables 2 and 3.
Multiple, repeated courses of antimicrobials for the same episode of Lyme disease or a duration of antimicrobial therapy prolonged far in excess of that shown in table 3.
Combination antimicrobial therapy.
Pulsed-dosing (i.e., antibiotic therapy on some days but not on other days).
First-generation cephalosporins, benzathine penicillin G, fluoroquinolones, carbapenems, vancomycin, metronidazole, tinidazole, trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, amantadine, ketolides, isoniazid, or fluconazole.
Empirical antibabesiosis therapy in the absence of documentation of active Babesiosis.
Anti-Bartonella therapies.
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy.
Fever therapy (with or without malaria induction).
Intravenous immunoglobulin.
Ozone.
Cholestyramine.
Intravenous hydrogen peroxide.
Vitamins or nutritional managements.
Magnesium or bismuth injections.
[Pg 1107, Section Table 4. Selected antimicrobials, drug regimens, or other modalities notrecommended for the treatment of Lyme disease.]
IN MARYLAND- NOT RECOMMENDED
Johns Hopkins Infectious Disease Department
Dr. Paul Auwaerter, Johns Hopkins, Baltimore, Maryland
Dr. John Bartlett, Johns Hopkins, Baltimore, Maryland
Dr. Michael Crouch, Salisbury, Maryland
Dr. Charles Stegman, Salisbury, Maryland
Dr. Edmund McLaughlin, Cambridge, Maryland
OTHER STATES
Manhattan infectious-disease doctors- Laura Fisher, director of the Lyme Disease Center at New York Hospital, Cornell Medical Center (212-746-1771), and Christopher Busillo (212-238-0102) and Chester Lerner (212-238-0106) at New York University Downtown Hospital.
In Westchester, NY: Robert Nadelman (914-493-8865) and Gary Wormser (914-493-8865) at Westchester Medical Center.
In Nassau: Eileen Hilton (516-470-6900), director of the Lyme Disease Diagnostic and Treatment Center, and Sunil K. Sood (718-470-3480) at Long Island Jewish Medical Center.
In Connecticut: Eugene Shapiro at Yale-New Haven Hospital (203-688-4518) and Debra Adler-Klein at Stamford Hospital (203-325-0146).
Bruce Logan at Manhattan's New York University Downtown Hospital (212-608-6634) and Raymond Dattwyler at U Hospital, Stony Brook, in Suffolk (631-444-8364).
Rheumatologists- Thomas Argyros, director of the Lyme Disease Center at Lennox Hill Hospital (212-988-7680); in New Jersey: Leonard Sigal at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School (732-235-7210); in Connecticut: Robert T. Schoen at Yale-New Haven Hospital (203-789-2255).