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 Unfortunately, some are misleading, outdated, incomplete, questionable or inaccurate.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
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 Members Testify before the Pennsylvania House Health and Human Services Committee on Appropriate Treatments for Lyme Disease 11/15/2007
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 Maine Legislators Urging to Invite Board-Certified ID Physicians to Testify at Lyme Disease Hearing 07/03/2007
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).