Paul Auwaerter at Johns Hopkins States Chronic Lyme Disease is the "Disease du jour" or "pseudo science".
Why Not Hopkins?
Please check out the articles below and then decide for yourself if Johns Hopkins is where you want to go for treatment of chronic Lyme disease.
Oops, that's right, they don't believe chronic Lyme exists! To them it's just "Post-Lyme Disease Syndrome"- and no treatment is needed!
"Post Treatment Lyme Disease Syndrome" or "Post Lyme Disease Syndrome" is the fake and mysterious "syndrome" that supposedly, and out of the blue, affects people who had Lyme disease and were treated with Hopkins' recommended short term, insurance-friendly antibiotic protocol and failed to fully recover.
"Post-Lyme Disease Syndrome" looks like Lyme, acts like Lyme, has the same symptoms as Lyme and responds to antibiotic treatment prescribed for Lyme, but according to Johns Hopkins this "syndrome" is NOT Lyme and should NOT be treated with antibiotics. HUH?
The so-called "experts" at Johns Hopkins don't know what is causing the Lyme look-alike syndrome or how to cure it, but most patients with chronic Lyme disease feel Johns Hopkins' theory- that they have A.B.L.S. (Anything But Lyme Syndrome)- is not at all plausible.
These patients are very sick. They are not stupid.
Point- Counterpoint Articles
1. Camp A- Johns Hopkin's A.B.L.S. Theory
IDSA Lecture
- Paul G. Auwaerter
Point: Antibiotic Therapy Is Not the Answer for Patients with Persisting Symptoms Attributable to Lyme Disease
http://cid.oxfordjournals.org/content/45/2/143.full
2. Camp B- The Rest of the World's Theory
IDSA Lecture
- Raphael B. Stricker
Counterpoint: Long-Term Antibiotic Therapy Improves Persistent Symptoms Associated with Lyme Disease
http://cid.oxfordjournals.org/content/45/2/149.full?sid=a046677f-12f4-48d1-bc9b-5a68d9bb5105
Attorney General's Findings- May 1, 2008 - [The IDSA Guideline editor, Paul Auwaerter, and several of its authors are from and/or are currently working at Johns Hopkins.]
"The IDSA's 2006 Lyme disease guideline panel undercut its credibility by allowing individuals with financial interests -- in drug companies, Lyme disease diagnostic tests, patents and consulting arrangements with insurance companies -- to exclude divergent medical evidence and opinion."
SOURCE https://web.archive.org/web/20170319133146/http://www.ct.gov/ag/cwp/view.asp?a=2795&q=414284
While Countless People Suffer
Paul Auwaerter from Johns Hopkins
Continues To Dismiss Chronic Lyme Disease,
Referring To It As "Pseudo Science Argument".
Paul Auwaerter - IDSA Spokesperson
QUOTE- "Sometimes it's non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma. Sometimes it's Parkinson's disease. Sometimes it's simply sleep apnea, and that's why the patient has been walking around in an exhausted fog.
Dr. Paul Auwaerter, clinical director for infectious diseases at Johns Hopkins University Hospital, has a whole list of such conditions, all of which turned out to be afflicting patients of his who thought they had chronic Lyme disease.
"I think the criteria is a bit too loose by these doctors who consider themselves Lyme specialists," Auwaerter said.
Yes, Lyme disease is on the rise, Auwaerter said. He's even come to believe that a very small number of people who have it may not respond to the standard two-to-four-week course of antibiotics, though he still believes that a long-term course will do nothing for them.
The problem, Auwaerter said, is that Lyme has taken on a certain "disease du jour" quality. And believers in the chronic form ascribe such a broad range of symptoms to it that they can chalk up virtually any physical or psychological problem to Lyme disease.
Sometimes the Lyme-causing bacteria have been killed off, but patients are still feeling the after-effects and wrongly ascribe them to a chronic form of the disease, he said. Regarding patients who claim they've recovered after extended treatment with antibiotics, Auwaerter said he suspects that they're simply getting over the after-effects and would have recovered anyway.
Auwaerter is also with the Infectious Diseases Society of America. He dismissed the Connecticut attorney general's investigation as misguided, and its conclusions as a "smokescreen."
Administering antibiotics over a long period of time has attendant risks, Auwaerter said. They can kill off beneficial flora in the digestive tract. If they're administered intravenously, patients can develop an infection from the catheter.
But the biggest risk of wrongly diagnosed chronic Lyme disease, Auwaerter said, is that people may be denied treatment for a genuine problem.
"Patients are really buying into this pseudo science argument," he said.
Lyme disease treatment sparks controversy
UPDATED: 03/29/2012 11:33:52 AM EDT
SOURCE- http://ydr.inyork.com/ci_12817019
Additional Articles:
http://www.baltimoremagazine.net/this-month/2008/06/tick-wars
http://www.mercurynews.com/science/ci_20627384/tick-season-reveals-debate-over-lyme-disease
http://www.rodale.com/lyme-disease-treatment-legislation