Activists and doctors divided over Lyme disease treatment
By Maura Lerner | Star Tribune (Minneapolis)
Four years ago, after being bitten by a deer tick, Michelle Backes got treated immediately for Lyme disease. She thought she was safe until three months later, when her body started going numb. Then the onetime teacher from Lindstrom, Minn., turned to a highly controversial therapy: more than a year's worth of antibiotics.
It is, say medical experts, a reckless, unproven and potentially dangerous approach.
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RESPONSE TO ABOVE ARTICLE
Lucy Barnes wrote on Apr 14, 2010 12:36 PM:
" Bakken and his small, but vocal group of Infectious Disease colleagues were under investigation by officials because too many red flags were popping up indicating something is seriously wrong with the treatment outcomes in patients who have a disease they've controlled lock, stock and barrel since day one.
For years we've known their recommended tests miss 75% of those infected (Hopkins 2005 study); their recommended vaccine was pulled from the market after multiple law suits were filed and over a thousand adverse event reports [complaints] were filed with the FDA about their vaccine.
Their tax-payer funded research study conclusions are some of the most highly contested in the medical literature and patient communities and their insurance-friendly, "cost-effective" diagnostic and treatment protocols have been proven repeatedly to be unsuccessful.
They have actively fought all state and federal legislation that would provide funding for more accurate tests and/or that would bring all science to the table to determine the best course of action to take to help Lyme patients.
Some have actively participated in the prosecution of doctors who treat outside their restrictive guidelines and have even stooped so low as to testify against patients with Lyme who became chronically ill or disabled after following their recommendations.
Sorry if Mr. Bakken was put-out by the Attorney General's legal actions, but...
If Camp A were right, there wouldn't be a Camp B. "
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