Re: Historic Move by CT Attorney General to Investigate IDSA Guidelines Process Give

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Is there a link for this article so I can send it along without

copyrights issue. Thanks,

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> Historic Move by CT Attorney General to Investigate IDSA Guidelines

Process

> Gives Hope to Thousands of Lyme Disease Patients

> Nov 16 2006, 7:00 AM EST

> BIOWIRE

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> The national non-profit Lyme Disease Association (LDA),

representing more

> Lyme disease patients than any organization in the United States,

applauds

> Connecticut State Attorney General Blumenthal for beginning

an

> investigation into the Infectious Diseases Society of America

(IDSA) Lyme disease

> guidelines development process. In an unprecedented move, the

Attorney General's

> office filed a Civil Investigative Demand (CID) to look into

possible

> anti-trust violations by the IDSA in connection with exclusionary

conduct and

> monopolization in the development of the Lyme guidelines.

> Although unprecedented, the LDA feels this action is vitally

necessary to

> protect the welfare of chronic Lyme patients nationwide whose

treatments have

> been impacted by the stance taken by the IDSA. Their guidelines

deny the

> existence of chronic infectious Lyme disease and list as " not

recommended " most of

> the conventional medical treatments prescribed by physicians as

well as

> alternative treatments often chosen by patients for any Lyme

manifestation. Even

> some nutritional supplements should not be an option according to

IDSA.

> Clinical guidelines now drive the standard of care, and these IDSA

> guidelines have already been published on the CDC website. They are

being used to deny

> treatment reimbursement and will have a continued chilling effect

on the

> small numbers of treating physicians, since clinical discretion is

not

> recommended in the guidelines.

> The October 2006 guidelines do not acknowledge that a complex

bacterium such

> as the Lyme disease spirochete could possibly survive in the body

and the

> brain, evading the immune system and short-term courses of

antibiotics, nor do

> they take into consideration any other professional diagnostic or

treatment

> guidelines such as those published by the International Lyme and

Associated

> Diseases Society (ILADS), which discuss chronic disease diagnostic

and treatment

> modalities. The IDSA also refused to allow patient or chronic

> disease-treating physician input into the guidelines process

through the LDA and ILADS,

> respectively, although both organizations requested to be a part of

the process.

> The national LDA and its affiliates Time for Lyme (CT) and the

California

> Lyme Disease Association and ILADS, a professional medical

organization, had

> appealed to the Attorney General on behalf of patients and treating

physicians.

> We are encouraged by the issuance of the CID, and we hope that this

will lead

> to actions that will guarantee patients the right to be treated

and support

> physicians' right to treat using clinical discretion.

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