Letter to the authors of the study linked here.
In this report the CDC & Indiana Health Department authors are eliminating reported cases of Lyme disease and Babesiosis by re-testing patients, who were already diagnosed and treated, using the unreliable lab tests currently on the market.
Sent to lead author Jen Brown- jenbrown@isdh.in.gov
Indiana State Health Department
Phone number 317-233-7272
October 18, 2018
Dear Ms. Brown, et. al.,
Perhaps you’ve heard the saying that you can’t have your cake and eat it too? Sadly for Indiana patients who are already ill and to the detriment of the general public who will become ill, your recent article attempts to do both. On one hand the CDC (and just about everyone everywhere) has proven Lyme tests are seriously lacking; and on the other hand you insist on using them to discount reported cases of Lyme disease.
Contrary to your claims of previously diagnosed and treated patients testing negative six months later and therefore, not being true cases of Lyme and Babesiosis, the CDC recently- within the past week in fact- along with the following authors, labs and Universities, stated:
"The 1994 serodiagnostic testing guidelines predated a full understanding of key B. burgdorferi antigens and have a number of shortcomings. These serologic tests cannot distinguish active infection, past infection, or reinfection. Reliable direct-detection methods for active B. burgdorferi infection have been lacking in the past but are needed and appear achievable.”
Department of Medicine, Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, Newark.
Laboratory Corporation of America, Burlington, North Carolina.
Qiagen, Inc., Germantown, Maryland.
Scientific Affairs, LLC, Atlanta, Georgia.
Department of Microbiology/Immunology, New York Medical College, Valhalla.
Department of Internal Medicine, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut.
Office of In Vitro Diagnostics and Radiological Health, Food and Drug Administration, Department of Health and Human Services, Silver Spring, Maryland.
Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Biochemistry, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis.
Viramed Biotech AG, Planegg, Germany.
L2 Diagnostics, LLC, New Haven, Connecticut.
Kephera Diagnostics, Wellesley, Massachusetts.
Roche Diagnostics, Pleasanton, California.
Center for Applied Proteomics and Molecular Medicine, College of Science, George Mason University, Manassas, Virginia.
Clinical Studies Unit, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland.
Division of Vector-Borne Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Fort Collins, Colorado.
Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore.
Office of Laboratory Science and Safety, US Food and Drug Administration, Department of Health and Human Services, Silver Spring, Maryland.
Department of Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine, California.
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, California.
T2 Biosystems, Inc., Lexington, Massachusetts.
Department of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston.
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, New York.
Wadsworth Center, New York State Department of Health, Albany.
Department of Pathology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston.
Link to study- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30307486
Additionally, there are many, many studies and a plethora of clinical experiences proving the current tests have miserably failed people for several decades. In one review Cook found 74.9% of those infected were missed using the current Lyme testing methods. In 2005 Johns Hopkins published a study indicating up to 90% of Lyme patients tested were false negative.
This begs the question- why would you waste MORE tax-payer money trying to prove these unacceptable tests are capable of accurately "un-diagnosing" sick patients?
In the sping of this year the Indiana University program that monitors disease-carrying pests found many more deer ticks that carry Lyme disease than previously thought to exist in the southern and central parts of the state. "A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention map that shows the general distribution of these ticks across the United States has a swoosh where they are not found that includes central and southern Indiana. While the CDC offers the caveat that some tick populations may exist outside areas highlighted where ticks are prevalent, the recent findings suggest the CDC needs to update those maps, Clay said." Source
The CDC/IDSA is known to retaliate against those who don't "tow the line", so is that what this article is about?
Whatever your agenda, once again, you are painting the wrong picture for the public, allowing people to become chronically ill, disabled and they will die. I know this for a fact because it is the same underhanded, unethical and insane tactics that were previously used behind the scenes over the years in Maryland, Virginia and other states by the CDC, IDSA and health departments.
Experience tells us your lame and transparent actions here will also be used as a tool to try to scare off experienced doctors who are clinically and correctly diagnosing Lyme and other tick borne diseases- which is how it is suppose to be. When will you get the message that we need to move forward? Leave the doctors who are helping their patients alone!
CDC & Health Departments have already caused enough problems for the Lyme community and were caught red-handed more than once. For example, after a lengthy investigation into all that surrounds Lyme disease, the Attorney General of CT, where Lyme was first identified, stated in his report concerning CDC’s highly promoted Lyme disease diagnostic (testing) and treatment guidelines:
"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
It is time that the CDC stop covering up and excluding divergent medical evidence, stop catering to insurers and patent holders (including themselves), and stop putting profits above patient care. Indiana patients, residents and health care professionals deserve better.
Lucy Barnes