IDSA & CDC

GET PHOTOS & MOVE GRANT INFO ELSEWHERE

Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA)

Centers for Disease Control (CDC)

THEY'RE NOT ALL THEY'RE CRACKED UP TO BE

In fact...

RUN, don't walk to your nearest exit!

~ ~ ~

Some of The Reasons You Have

Chronic Lyme Disease

~ ~ ~

Meet #1 Offender

Gary- "I would say- SO WHAT?"- Wormser

Gary Wormser

NY Medical College

Lead Author 2006 IDSA Guidelines

Lead author of the insurance-friendly, ineffective and discredited 2006 IDSA Lyme disease guidelines....

QUOTE- “Right now, in the published literature, there is no evidence of persistence in humans, and if there were I would say, ‘So what?’ ” he [Wormser] told me recently. " Source

QUOTE 7/29/16- “There is no such thing as ‘chronic Lyme,’” points out Gary Wormser, M.D., chief author of the IDSA guidelines.” Source

You have A.B.L.S.- (Anything But Lyme Syndrome)...

QUOTE 7/29/16- "So the symptoms reported by “chronic” Lyme patients must have some other cause—perhaps an autoimmune reaction or even a co-infection. “The majority of people I see who have been diagnosed with chronic Lyme have similar symptoms but don’t have any evidence of ever having had Lyme disease,” says Dr. Wormser." Source

QUOTE- "Dr. Wormser sums up by saying, “Working in the Lyme disease field has been an exciting and many-faceted experience. I feel privileged to have been able to contribute toward a better understanding of the infection.” Source- pg. 17

Do You Know?

Paul- no such thing as chronic Lyme disease- Auwaerter

Paul Auwaerter

Johns Hopkins Infectious Diseases

Author 2006 IDSA Guidelines

Paul Auwaerter- coauthor of the insurance-friendly, ineffective and discredited 2006 IDSA Lyme disease guidelines....

Paul was part of the 2005 Hopkins blood test study proving Lyme tests miss 75% of those with Lyme- then recommended them for use in the 2006 IDSA/CDC guidelines to indicate, only if positive, that someone has Lyme disease. Is he actually from THIS planet?

QUOTE- "Dr. Paul Auwaerter, a Johns Hopkins Hospital infectious disease specialist who volunteers on the IDSA's Lyme advisory panel, likens Lyme disease to other issues, such as the John F. Kennedy assassination and global warming, that lend themselves to conspiracy theories." Source

QUOTE By Auwaerter- (a positive Lyme test does not mean you have Lyme disease)- "Therefore, the presence of seropositivity does not guarantee that a given medical condition is due to B. burgdorferi infection."

QUOTE- "Here at Johns Hopkins, for example, our laboratory does not report Western blot bands with its Lyme disease testing results. The report is a simple yes or no; you have a positive result or a negative result, so there is less tendency for misinterpretation." [Paul Auwaerter, for Medscape Infectious Diseases Auwaerter was co-author on the Johns Hopkins blood test study- 2005- where it showed 75% of the people with Lyme were missed.]

Meet Bah Hum Bug On Chronic Lyme...

Raymond- just the aches and pains of daily living- Dattwyler

Raymond Dattwyler

NY Medical College

2006 IDSA Guideline Author

And Special Friend to Insurers...

Dattwyler is another proponent of the A.B.L.S. diagnosis (Anything But Lyme Syndrome). He does not know what you have (no clue), but he insists it isn't Lyme disease.

Dattwyler testifies for insurers against patients he also tries to control using his disgusting IDSA/CDC Lyme guidelines. He has been associated with the Hold The Mayo Clinic, Tufts New England Medical Center and Mass General Hospital- THREE of the worst places for Lyme patients to get help.

He is also (or has been) a consultant for the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Vector-Borne Disease Group, the FDA Anti-infectives (antibiotics) Group, and the FDA Vaccine Group. He has reviewed and granted proposals for the NIH and is/was involved with the World Health Organization and their Lyme disease efforts.

He is/was a member of the CDC Serology Panel that looked at the best way to interpret Lyme tests and helped design the national standards for those tests.

QUOTE- "Lyme expert Dr. Raymond Dattwyler, of New York Medical College, said he wasn't surprised by the poll results. "Chronic Lyme disease is just not accepted by the vast majority of physicians," he told Reuters Health. "The majority of people who get the diagnosis of chronic Lyme disease have either depression, fibromyalgia or another chronic illness."

Also, a proponent of the infamous "just the aches and pains of daily living" diagnosis.

QUOTE- "If you look at the symptoms that they report to be associated with chronic Lyme," he added, "population studies have shown those are very common complaints among the general population." Source

QUOTE- "A few physicians advocate prolonged courses of antibiotics, claiming that Lyme disease is responsible for an array of vague subjective clinical concerns and a cause of chronic infection [2, 3]. One has to question why a reasonable physician would treat a patient this way and more importantly what has led to this confusion."

QUOTE- "Third, further complicating the interpretation of these studies is that many of the clinical manifestations used to define failure are common complaints in the general population. Such complaints as fatigue, stiff neck, arthralgia, myalgia, palpitations, abdominal pain, sleep disturbance, poor concentration, irritability, depression, back pain, headache, dizziness, and other nonspecific symptoms are reported fairly commonly in otherwise healthy members of the general population [8, 9]. None of the studies took the common occurrence of these concerns into consideration in their definition of treatment failure."

QUOTE- "Diagnosing Lyme disease simply on the basis of the presence of subjective complaints is unjustifiable." Source

Trial Testimony of Raymond Dattwyler (1994 case- insurer fighting a patient)

10:29:10 11 A Yes. I'm a consultant to Center for Disease Control vector-borne disease group, the FDA antiinfectives group which is antibiotics, the FDA vaccine group. I've been on a study section which reviews grants and proposals for NIH. I've been involved with World Health Organization and their Lyme disease efforts.

Well, for whatever reason, this organism likes the nervous system, and you can get infection of the peripheral nerves. Those are the nerves outside of the brain and spinal column. You can also get -- there is something called ganglia, which run along the spine. You can also have infection of those and that can be quite painful.

It's very treatable. Cure rates are excellent.

In Lyme it's much more subtle, and fortunately Lyme doesn't kill you, so we don't have autopsy studies to prove it.

There are some individuals in the Lyme community who believe in prolonged antibiotics for Lyme disease, and we had discussed that, and I was just telling him that these drugs have significant anti-inflammatory effects and that this type of medication has significant anti-inflammatory effects, and not to equate improvement with the antibiotic effects, necessarily.

Q Do you know Dr. Wormzer? A Very well. We worked together on a number of projects. Q Is Dr. Wormzer an expert in the field of Lyme disease, it's treatment and management? A Yes.

The standard of definition of erythema migrans is it must be at least five centimeters in diameter. They're also in the CDC surveillance case definition which I helped to write, so.

Q So that it doesn't -- and you are a consultant to the CDC, so it doesn't meet the criteria for erythema migrans rash if it's under five centimeters? A Yes. Q Or it has to be equal to five centimeters? A Equal or greater than. Q Okay. I got it reversed. So, on June 3, 1994, that rash wasn't a rash that was consistent with erythema.

Doctor, when we're talking about a cure of Lyme disease, what does that mean, by definition to you? A Well, if you're talking about a cure of infection, it's eradication of the spirochete. If you're talking about a cure, you'd like to have someone return to baseline values and be normal again.

Okay. In your opinion, has Mr. Hanania had a cure in terms of his return to baseline values? A No. He continues to have ongoing problems.

Q So, when counsel was asking you questions on cross-examination about a cure, what were you referring to?

A Bacteriological.

A bacteriologic cure, meaning eradication of the infecting organism.

Q So it's your opinion that Mr. Hanania no longer has the Lyme disease-causing bacteria in his body? A Correct.

Q And to that extent his antibiotic treatment has been effective? A Correct.

QUOTE- "Anything [antibiotics] that works [against Lyme] there's complications, and you have to weigh the individual's situation with risks and the benefits."

Source

Eugene Shapiro

Yale School of Medicine

Professor of General Pediatrics

I'd Like To Introduce You To...

Eugene- Pinocchio Nose- Shapiro

QUOTE- “People complaining of chronic Lyme are very common,” said Shapiro. “Actual late (stage) Lyme disease is so rare that general practitioners are lucky to see one patient. ~ Every patient that’s been seen with chronic Lyme disease in my practice never had it.” Source

QUOTE- "Lyme disease is NOT hard to diagnose." Source

QUOTE- "There is no diagnosis for chronic Lyme disease." Source

QUOTE- “Dr. Jones by the way once diagnosed a teenage(r) who attacked a cat with an ax, diagnosed this as chronic Lyme disease over the telephone. I kid you not. I was involved with the court case.” Source

QUOTE- “I used to have late neurological Lyme on this slide, but I took it off because I've never seen a child with late neurological Lyme.” Source

QUOTE- “So, if you have a clinical situation, where a patient has vague symptoms, not likely to be Lyme disease. Antibody for Bb is negative, not likely to be Lyme disease. Antibody for Bb positive, diagnosis: Not Lyme disease.” Source

QUOTE- ""California. This is ridiculous. This is the desert here. But if some nut reports a case of Lyme disease, it gets included." Source

QUOTE- On parents who insist that their children have Lyme disease: "… some of this is Munchausen's by Proxy." Source

QUOTE- "ALL of the studies have shown that the antibiotics are of no benefit." Source

QUOTE- “Some of these Lyme disease support groups really put a lot of pressure on us. And the NIH is really under pressure by lawmakers to do something to study this problem. … Most of these patients had already been treated for an average of something ridiculous, like 4 months.” Source

QUOTE- “So clearly, these patients were sick. They had problems. It's just that antibiotic deficiency was not one of them. [laughter].” Source

Have You Flogged Your Patients Today?

Lawrence- I hate Lyme doctors- Zemel

Lawrence Zemel

Regarding Dr. Charles R. Jones (CT) Hearing February 2010- from one of Dr. Jones Letters To The Lyme Community- Dr. Jones wrote- "A second set of charges also was brought against me. These involved three different cases, which were “conjoined” into one proceeding. Once again, none of the patients involved had sustained any harm from treatment, and my attorneys succeeded in having the first of these cases dismissed entirely. They also succeeded in having Dr. Zemel’s testimony as an expert witness completely dismissed by the CMEB as biased; this will limit his ability to testify in this capacity in other proceedings against LLMD’s as well." Source

QUOTE- [Letter from Zemel to CT DOH asking them to investigate a Lyme treating doctor.] “Have one of your staff investigators pose as a patient, complete with vague symptoms and negative Lyme results but insisting that she have Lyme disease. I would be happy to rehearse that investigator.... Examine records of patients treated over the past few years for Lyme disease to see if they truly fulfill established criteria [IDSA] for Lyme disease.”

Final paragraph: “Good luck with your investigation. I would be happy to assist in any way possible.” Zemel, L. Department of Public Health Hearing Office Letter, Donna Brewer. Hartford, CT, Sept. 14, 1993. Source

QUOTE- “Dr. Jones is being charged with improperly diagnosing and treating Lyme disease after having treated and cured two children whose health was of great concern to their mother for years,” said Jones’ attorney, Elliot Pollack. “Instead of being sanctioned, he should be complimented....

QUOTE- “This decision sends a message to a very small cadre of physicians who do not conform to standards of care for diagnosing and treating Lyme disease,” said Dr. Lawrence Zemel, chief of rheumatology at the Connecticut Children’s Medical Center in Hartford and professor of medicine at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine." Source

Too Many Awful Zemel Quotes & Nasty Deeds To List Them All- More Here.

Centers For Disease Control (CDC)

From High Up In His Ivory Tower...

Paul- you ain't got no evidence- Mead

Paul Mead- CDC

QUOTE- "Studies have shown that long-term antibiotic treatment is not effective, can lead to antibiotic resistance and can harm or even kill, according to CDC epidemiologist Paul Mead." Source

QUOTE- "There are people who get bona fide Lyme disease, late manifestations of symptoms, get treated and still have complaints," says Dr. Paul Mead, medical epidemiologist for the CDC in Fort Collins, Colo. "Chronic symptoms can occur, but the question is whether or not that's due to bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi." Source

QUOTE- "When used in accordance with current testing guidelines (7), 2-tiered serologic testing is a valuable and highly specific clinical tool for diagnosis of disseminated Lyme disease. Confusion exists, however, among patients and clinicians concerning appropriate use and interpretation of this and other diagnostic tests for Lyme disease." Source

QUOTE- "In 2005, CDC and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a warning regarding the use of Lyme disease tests whose accuracy and clinical usefulness have not been adequately established. Often these are laboratory-developed tests (also known as "home brew" tests) that are manufactured and used within a single laboratory... The review raised serious concerns about false-positive results caused by laboratory contamination and the potential for misdiagnosis." Source

QUOTE- "Conversely, providers in low-LD-incidence states frequently prescribe tick-bite prophylaxis, suggesting a need for education to reduce potential misdiagnosis and over treatment." Source

QUOTE- [Concerning the crude and blatant "undiagnosing" of the cause of death of patients when Lyme was listed- without seeing patient, autopsy reports or medical charts.] "Lyme disease was listed as an underlying or multiple cause of death on 114 death records during 1999-2003. Upon review, only 1 record was consistent with clinical manifestations of Lyme disease. This analysis indicates that Lyme disease is rare as a cause of death in the United States." Source

QUOTE- "“chronic Lyme disease.” This term is used by a small number of practitioners (often self-designated as “Lyme-literate physicians”) to describe patients whom they believe have persistent B. burgdorferi infection, a condition they suggest requires long-term antibiotic treatment and may even be incurable. Although chronic Lyme disease clearly encompasses post–Lyme disease syndrome, it also includes a broad array of illnesses or symptom complexes for which there is no reproducible or convincing scientific evidence of any relationship to B. burgdorferi infection." Source

QUOTE- "When physicians who diagnose chronic Lyme disease obtain laboratory tests to provide support for their diagnoses, they often rely heavily on “Lyme specialty laboratories.” Such laboratories may perform unvalidated in-house tests that are not regulated by the Food and Drug Administration, or they may perform standard serologic tests interpreted with the use of criteria that are not evidence-based.1" Source

QUOTE- "Antibiotic therapy can cause considerable harm to patients treated for chronic Lyme disease or post–Lyme disease symptoms." Source

QUOTE- "Although anecdotal evidence and findings from uncontrolled studies have been used to provide support for long-term treatment of chronic Lyme disease,18-20 a response to treatment alone is neither a reliable indicator that the diagnosis is accurate nor proof of an antimicrobial effect of treatment." Source

QUOTE- "It is highly unlikely that post–Lyme disease syndrome is a consequence of occult infection of the central nervous system." Source

QUOTE- "additional evidence against the hypothesis that chronic symptoms are due to persistent infection is the fact that antibodies against B. burgdorferi in many of these patients are undetectable, which is inconsistent with the well-established immunogenicity of the spirochete's lipoproteins." Source

QUOTE- "Although B. burgdorferi can develop into cystlike forms in vitro under certain conditions that can be created in the laboratory,50 there is no evidence that this phenomenon has any clinical relevance." Source

QUOTE- "How should clinicians handle the referral of symptomatic patients who are purported to have chronic Lyme disease? The scientific evidence against the concept of chronic Lyme disease should be discussed and the patient should be advised about the risks of unnecessary antibiotic therapy. ...

If a diagnosis for which there is a specific treatment cannot be made, the goal should be to provide emotional support and management of pain, fatigue, or other symptoms as required. Explaining that there is no medication, such as an antibiotic, to cure the condition is one of the most difficult aspects of caring for such patients. Nevertheless, failure to do so in clear and empathetic language leaves the patient susceptible to those who would offer unproven and potentially dangerous therapies. Additional advice to clinicians is included in the Supplementary Appendix, available with the full text of this article at www.nejm.org." Source

QUOTE- "Physicians and laypeople who believe in the existence of chronic Lyme disease have formed societies, created charitable foundations, started numerous support groups (even in locations in which B. burgdorferi infection is not endemic), and developed their own management guidelines." Source

QUOTE- "Chronic Lyme disease is the latest in a series of syndromes that have been postulated in an attempt to attribute medically unexplained symptoms to particular infections. Other examples that have now lost credibility are “chronic candida syndrome” and “chronic Epstein–Barr virus infection.”57,58 The assumption that chronic, subjective symptoms are caused by persistent infection with B. burgdorferi is not supported by carefully conducted laboratory studies or by controlled treatment trials. Chronic Lyme disease, which is equated with chronic B. burgdorferi infection, is a misnomer, and the use of prolonged, dangerous, and expensive antibiotic treatments for it is not warranted." Source

Pucker Up Now For

Ben- Mr. Suck Up- Beard

C. Ben Beard

~ ~ ~ Meet Mr. Suck-Up ~ ~ ~

~ ~ ~Pulling the Wool Over Too Many Eyes~ ~ ~

QUOTE- "We are also grateful for the opportunity to expand the public dialogue around these important issues through informed discussion with leaders like Dr. Beard."

Bay Area Lyme Foundation

Nat Cap Lyme & Ben Beard

Georgia Lyme Disease Association & Ben Beard

QUOTE- "Dr. Ben Beard of the CDC met with directors of CALDA on March 10 as part of an effort to reach out to Lyme patient groups across the nation."

LymeDisease.org & Ben Beard

QUOTE- "Dr. Ben Beard from the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention who came all the way from Ft. Collins Colorado to share in our celebration today."

LDA & Ben Beard

Christine- "ethics"- what's that?- Nelson

Christine Nelson- CDC

Christine Nelson's So-Called "Study"- Attacks on Lyme Patients & Their Doctors

CDC Ignores Ethics, Attacks "Chronic Lyme"- A look at some of the background of how Christine Nelson came to receive information on a handful of people who had “adverse effects” from what she claims was chronic Lyme treatment and how she found her co-authors for this "study".

QUOTE- "Neither the CDC or the National Institutes of Health recommends using the diagnosis “chronic Lyme disease,” for several reasons, Nelson said. The diagnosis is often based on clinical judgment, with no objective evidence of Lyme disease, such as standard laboratory testing for Lyme bacteria or even a history of possible tick exposure in an area with endemic Lyme disease." Source

BTW Matt- Where Did All That Money Go?

Matthew- pigging out on government grants- Carrter

Matthew Carrter

Connecticut DOH

Tax-Payers Grant Money For

Matthew Cartter

Matt, What did you do with all this money?

It was suppose to be for

Lyme Disease Prevention in Connecticut.

MILLIONS and MILLIONS and MILLIONS of DOLLARS!!

And FIFTEEN YEARS LATER

Connecticut STILL has the 3rd highest