"Lyme disease (LD) is a multi-system bacterial infection caused by a the spirochete Borrelia burgdoferi (Bb). The pathogen was named in honor of the discoverer and a founding board member of the Lyme Disease Foundation, Willy Burgdorfer, PhD, MD (hon). Research has proven that the bacterium that causes Lyme disease has been in the U.S. for over 100 years. These spirochetes are maintained in nature in the bodies of wild animals and is transmitted from one animal to another through the bite of an infective tick. Humans and pets are incidental hosts to ticks. The body does not maintain a natural immunity to the disease. Thus, a person can be re-infected with the disease on subsequent tick bites." Lyme Disease Foundation, Inc. www.Lyme.org

"The Scientific Controversy: There has been a long-standing controversy in the medical community as to whether or not Lyme disease is easily diagnosed, treated and cured. One group states that diagnosis is easy and that Lyme is almost always cured with 4 weeks of antibiotics. If the patient is still sick after those 4 weeks, this group claims that either the patient was incorrectly diagnosed, that the continuing symptoms are psychosomatic, or that the patient now suffers from an autoimmune problem which was caused by the original Lyme infection --- and that there is no treatment for this auto-immune problem.

The other side of the controversy is supported by chronic Lyme patients and the physicians who treat us. We contend that the persistence of Lyme disease symptoms beyond the 4 week treatment is due to the persistence of the Lyme disease bacterial infection and/or to the presence of co-infection. We attest to the fact that we do much better when treated beyond those 4 weeks of antibiotic treatment. Our subjective experience is supported by a body of peer reviewed scientific research.

Since there is no definitive test to show when someone has Lyme disease and/or is cured of it, since our symptoms persist past the standard four week treatment, and since we have significant scientific literature supporting that the Lyme bacterium can survive this standard treatment, we protest any attempt by the OPMC to repress the right of physicians to treat chronic Lyme disease patients according to their best clinical judgment which has been informed by the scientific literature." www.Faim.org/lyme.htm  

Spirochetes in blood

Late and Chronic Lyme Disease: Symptom Overlap with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome & Fibromyalgia
www.immunesupport.com/library/showarticle.cfm/ID/3579  

Learning to Live With Lyme Disease www.angelfire.com/hi/angelscloud4/lyme.html 

Lyme Disease Foundation  (Call for LD Doctor Referrals)  www.lyme.org 

TESTING:

IGenex, Inc.  Lyme Disease Overview www.igenex.com/lymeset1.htm 

Lyme Disease and False Negative or False Positive Blood Test Results www.geocities.com/HotSprings/Spa/6772/false-neg-pos-index.html 

IgeneX
Palo Alto, California
http://www.igenex.com/
415-424-1191
800-832-3200

North American Laboratory
New Britain, CT
203-826-1140
800-866-NALG
203-223-6279-fax

New Jersey Laboratories
New Brunswick, NJ
732-249-0148

Tick Research Laboratory
Kingston, Rhode Island
401-874-2650

"ILADS is a nonprofit, international, multidisciplinary medical society, dedicated to the diagnosis and appropriate treatment of Lyme and its associated diseases. ILADS promotes understanding of Lyme and its associated diseases through research and education and strongly supports physicians and other health care professionals dedicated to advancing the standard of care for Lyme and its associated diseases.

Strategic Goals: Improve physician understanding of Lyme disease.Review, develop and implement clinical research programs that enhance the management of Lyme and its associated diseases. Advance the standards of care for Lyme and its associated diseases. Review, develop and implement programs for physician and other healthcare provider support (i.e. Materials, advice and education)" www.ILADS.org

"UNDERTREATMENT:
  1. Because the diagnosis is not being made, for reasons partly outlined above.
  2. University based and government endorsed treatment protocols are empiric, insufficient, refer to studies involving inadequate animal models, and are ignorant of basic pharmacology. They are not based on honest systematic studies or on the results of newer information.
  3. After short courses of treatment, patients with advanced disease rarely return to normal, yet many can be proven to still be infected and can often respond to further antibiotic therapy. Unfortunately, Lyme patients are being denied such therapy for political reasons and/or because insurance companies refuse to pay for longer treatment, upon the arbitrary and uninformed advice of these physicians, who are on the insurance company's payroll.
  4. Long term studies on patients who were untreated or undertreated demonstrated the occurrence of severe illness more than a decade later, reminiscent of the findings of the notorious Tuskeege Study, in which intentionally untreated syphilis patients were allowed to suffer permanent and in some cases fatal sequelae.
  5. The Lyme bacterium spreads to areas of the body that render this organism resistant to being killed by the immune system and by antibiotics, such as in the eye, deep within tendons, and within cells. The Lyme bacterium also has a very complex life cycle that renders it resistant to simple treatment strategies. Therefore, to be effective, antibiotics must be given in generous doses over several months, until signs of active infection have cleared. Because relapses have appeared long after seemingly adequate therapy, long term followup, measured in years or decades, is required before any treatment regimen is deemed adequate or curative.
  6. When administered by skilled clinicians, the safety of long term antibiotic therapy has been firmly established.
  The very existence of hundreds of Lyme support groups in this country, and the tens of thousands of dissatisfied, mistreated and ill patients whom these groups represent, underscores the many problems that exist out in the real world of Lyme disease. I ask and plead with you to hear their voices, listen to their stories, and work in an honest and unbiased way to help and protect the many Americans whose health is at risk from what now has become a political disease. Thank you." By: Joseph J. Burrascano, Jr. www.jersey.net/~joebur/conspire.htm