Written By TWO Lyme Disease Guideline Authors
(Auwaerter & Lantos)
Studies over the past 15 years continue to show approximately 3/4 of those tested for Lyme disease using the IDSA/CDC recommended tests (75%, 74.9% and 72.2%)...
Were false negative!
In 2005 Johns Hopkins published a study indicating approximately 75% of those with Lyme disease were missed using their recommended testing methods. Paul Auwaerter from Hopkins was a co-author of that study.
Less than a year later, Paul Auwaerter, the 2006 IDSA Lyme disease guidelines editor and IDSA spokesperson, approved the 2006 IDSA guidelines that recommended people have not one, but two positive tests before they would be treated for Lyme disease, even though he knew the tests missed the majority of people with Lyme disease.
Stephen Dumler (Johns Hopkins and a 2006 IDSA guideline author) was also a co-author on the original Johns Hopkins 2005 blood test study and he also knew the results of their 2005 study, yet signed off on patients having two positive tests before treatment was recommended.
In fact, the most recent independent (not Hopkins/IDSA) study by Cook, et. al. stated...
QUOTE- "The probability of a false-negative test for LD with a single test for early-stage disease was high at 66.8%, increasing to 74.9% for two-tier testing." Source
It's plain to see...
People are being set up to fail- by way of faulty tests, egregious guidelines, insurance-friendly treatment protocols and unscrupulous macedemia nut doctors putting profits before patients.
Needless to say, since that time Auwaerter and Dumler's recommended (profitable) Lyme tests have missed many who have become chronically ill, disabled and died... BUT, they are still in use and still recommended!
Fast Forward- In July 2019, Paul Auwaerter (co-author of most recent 2019 Lyme guidelines) and Paul Lantos (lead author of the 2019 Lyme guidelines), et. al., published a study claiming 72.2% of Lyme patients whose charts (not the people just charts) "were screened" didn't have Lyme disease. Poof! It's Gone!
They don't say what they do have to explain their Lyme and tick borne disease symptoms after a tick bite, just that they don't have Lyme disease. Must be that pesky ABLS again- Anything But Lyme Syndrome.
It's unbelievable, but by way of insensitive and inaccurate Lyme tests, multivariable logistic regression analysis, flow charts, statistics, mean averages, demographics, standardized lists, retrospective observations and inexperienced "research assistants", their conclusion was...
QUOTE- "Among patients referred to an academic Infectious Diseases practice for Lyme disease, incorrect diagnoses and unnecessary antibiotic treatment were common, both for Lyme disease and for coinfections."
UNDIAGNOSING Lyme patients by way of chart reviews and tests that have failed millions of people over the past two decades is unconscionable.
The IDSA and CDC have a bad habit of going back to review the work of other doctors from all specialties simply to prove them wrong. Is that a slap in the face or not? And this nasty behavior of theirs, trying to discredit both doctors and patients, and even labs and researchers, is ongoing.
For example, a so-called "study" by the CDC a handful of macedemia nuts who had never seen or treated patients, or even reviewed their medical charts, claimed that of the 114 death certificates listing Lyme disease as a cause of death, only one possibly had Lyme disease. By undiagnosing the cause of death for 113/114 people they concluded and falsely I might add...
QUOTE- "This analysis indicates that Lyme disease is rare as a cause of death in the United States."
THAT'S NOT THE WAY IT WORKS!
You don't go around nipping at the heels of other's, undiagnose their patients that you've never even seen and call it good.
Worse yet- these authors, who typicaly have their work buried behind a paywall to bring in extra $$ from those who want to review it, and who beg for grants to support their work, did this crumby study for free! "Obtained funding: none."
NOTES
"Results of B. burgdorferi antibody testing were used for clinical analysis only if performed using Food and Drug Adminstration–approved serologic methods; results of molecular testing were also used if performed by commercial or reference laboratories."
"Of 1261 patients, 911 (72.2%) did not have Lyme disease, 184 (14.6%) had active or recent Lyme disease, 150 (11.9%) had a remote history of Lyme disease, and 16 (1.3%) were identified as having possible Lyme disease."
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31363774
Authors of this article published on Lyme disease- with no experience.
Samuels, R.- only this one
Moaven, A.- only this one- no others on any topic
Sanyal, A. - only this one for Lyme.
Yenokyan, G.- Only this one on Lyme
Higgins, Y. and Kobayashi- only time published on Lyme
Kobayashi T, Higgins Y, Samuels R, Moaven A, Sanyal A, Yenokyan G, Lantos PM, Melia MT, Auwaerter PG.
Open Forum Infect Dis. 2019 Jul 1;6(7). pii: ofz299. doi: 10.1093/ofid/ofz299.
~~
Robinson ML, Kobayashi T, Higgins Y, Calkins H, Melia MT.
Infect Dis Clin North Am. 2015 Jun;29(2):255-68. doi: 10.1016/j.idc.2015.02.003. Review.
~~
Higgins & Auwaerter
Kobayashi T, Higgins Y, Samuels R, Moaven A, Sanyal A, Yenokyan G, Lantos PM, Melia MT, Auwaerter PG.
Open Forum Infect Dis. 2019 Jul 1;6(7). pii: ofz299. doi: 10.1093/ofid/ofz299.
~~
Keller SC, Cosgrove SE, Higgins Y, Piggott DA, Osgood G, Auwaerter PG.
Open Forum Infect Dis. 2016 Aug 30;3(4):ofw176. eCollection 2016 Oct.
~~
Piggott DA, Higgins YM, Melia MT, Ellis B, Carroll KC, McFarland EG, Auwaerter PG.
Open Forum Infect Dis. 2015 Dec 9;3(1):ofv191. doi: 10.1093/ofid/ofv191. eCollection 2016 Jan.
~~
Lantos & Auwaerter Published On Lyme Together- 9 times
Kobayashi T, Higgins Y, Samuels R, Moaven A, Sanyal A, Yenokyan G, Lantos PM, Melia MT, Auwaerter PG.
Open Forum Infect Dis. 2019 Jul 1;6(7). pii: ofz299. doi: 10.1093/ofid/ofz299.
~~
Geographic Expansion of Lyme Disease in Michigan, 2000-2014.
Lantos PM, Tsao J, Nigrovic LE, Auwaerter PG, Fowler VG, Ruffin F, Foster E, Hickling G.
Open Forum Infect Dis. 2017 Jan 9;4(1):ofw269. doi: 10.1093/ofid/ofw269. eCollection 2017 Winter.
~~
Lantos PM, Auwaerter PG, Nelson CA.
JAMA. 2016 Apr 26;315(16):1780-1. doi: 10.1001/jama.2016.4882. No abstract available.
~~
Geographic Expansion of Lyme Disease in the Southeastern United States, 2000-2014.
Lantos PM, Nigrovic LE, Auwaerter PG, Fowler VG Jr, Ruffin F, Brinkerhoff RJ, Reber J, Williams C, Broyhill J, Pan WK, Gaines DN.
Open Forum Infect Dis. 2015 Sep 27;2(4):ofv143. doi: 10.1093/ofid/ofv143. eCollection 2015 Dec.
~~
Lantos PM, Branda JA, Boggan JC, Chudgar SM, Wilson EA, Ruffin F, Fowler V, Auwaerter PG, Nigrovic LE.
Clin Infect Dis. 2015 Nov 1;61(9):1374-80. doi: 10.1093/cid/civ584. Epub 2015 Jul 20.
~~
Unorthodox alternative therapies marketed to treat Lyme disease.
Lantos PM, Shapiro ED, Auwaerter PG, Baker PJ, Halperin JJ, McSweegan E, Wormser GP.
Clin Infect Dis. 2015 Jun 15;60(12):1776-82. doi: 10.1093/cid/civ186. Epub 2015 Apr 6. Review.
~~
Laboratory testing for lyme neuroborreliosis--reply.
Melia MT, Lantos PM, Auwaerter PG.
JAMA Neurol. 2015 Jan;72(1):126. doi: 10.1001/jamaneurol.2014.3555. No abstract available.
~~
Lyme disease: authentic imitator or wishful imitation?
Melia MT, Lantos PM, Auwaerter PG.
JAMA Neurol. 2014 Oct;71(10):1209-10. doi: 10.1001/jamaneurol.2014.1193. No abstract available.
~~
Lantos PM, Auwaerter PG, Wormser GP. <<<<
Clin Infect Dis. 2014 Mar;58(5):663-71. doi: 10.1093/cid/cit810. Epub 2013 Dec 12. Review.
~~
Melia, MT- 7 times on Lyme, all but one had Auwaerter and/or Lantos.
Kobayashi T, Higgins Y, Samuels R, Moaven A, Sanyal A, Yenokyan G, Lantos PM, Melia MT, Auwaerter PG.
Open Forum Infect Dis. 2019 Jul 1;6(7). pii: ofz299. doi: 10.1093/ofid/ofz299.
~~
Time for a Different Approach to Lyme Disease and Long-Term Symptoms.
Melia MT, Auwaerter PG.
N Engl J Med. 2016 Mar 31;374(13):1277-8. doi: 10.1056/NEJMe1502350. No abstract available.
~~
Robinson ML, Kobayashi T, Higgins Y, Calkins H, Melia MT.
Infect Dis Clin North Am. 2015 Jun;29(2):255-68. doi: 10.1016/j.idc.2015.02.003. Review.
~~
Laboratory testing for lyme neuroborreliosis--reply.
Melia MT, Lantos PM, Auwaerter PG.
JAMA Neurol. 2015 Jan;72(1):126. doi: 10.1001/jamaneurol.2014.3555. No abstract available.
~~
Lyme disease: authentic imitator or wishful imitation?
Melia MT, Lantos PM, Auwaerter PG.
JAMA Neurol. 2014 Oct;71(10):1209-10. doi: 10.1001/jamaneurol.2014.1193. No abstract available.
~~
Bullying Borrelia: when the culture of science is under attack.
Auwaerter PG, Melia MT.
Trans Am Clin Climatol Assoc. 2012;123:79-89; discussion 89-90.
~~
Barclay SS, Melia MT, Auwaerter PG.
Clin Vaccine Immunol. 2012 Nov;19(11):1806-9. doi: 10.1128/CVI.00383-12. Epub 2012 Sep 12.
Last Updated- August 2019
Lucy Barnes
scc