Letter: Uptick in AG's Popularity (Business New Haven 12/11/06)

[Guest guest]

Letter: Uptick in AG's Popularity Business New Haven

12/11/2006 I want to congratulate [state Attorney General]

Blumenthal for sticking up for the infectious-disease doctors who do everything

in

their power to help the sometimes extremely sick Lyme and other tick-borne

disease patients (BNH, November 27). I congratulate him for taking seriously a

very serious health issue and for doing everything in his power to help the

thousands of very ill people around the country to get the best and most

comprehensive care that they need.

I do not congratulate the Infectious Disease Society of America for ignoring

clinical research and treatment success stories from these experienced and

highly esteemed doctors from all over the country and the world. I do not

congratulate them for writing guidelines that are unrealistic because they do

not follow the unfortunate reality of these illnesses. [blumenthal last month

issued a subpoena to the IDSA over guidelines that discourage long-term

antibiotic treatment for Lyme disease.]

The story of these tick-borne diseases is still a mystery that needs to be

unraveled. If we obstruct doctors from treating and patients from getting

better, a couple of things may happen:

1) These tick-borne diseases will continue to be a mystery. The research

into treatments and cures will slow because the research seem to be fueled by

infectious-disease doctors' own success stories. But because of these new

guidelines, everyone will be too afraid to do anything, which results in less

research and more seriously ill people.

2) The incidence of curing or of getting the disease into remission will

naturally fall, possibly causing millions of dollars being wasted in hospital

bills because if the patient was allowed to be treated the right way at the

beginning, there would be much less late-stage illness and fewer serious

complications.

The incidence of these diseases will continue to rise because of the warm

falls and winters and the rising number of deer and rodents. We could either

ignore this health issue even though the incidence of these illnesses rises

every year, or we could actually face it head on and figure out how to better

diagnose it and how to better cure it.

For me, these new guidelines would not have worked. I would not be here

today and would certainly not be able to write this if my doctor had followed

these guidelines. Seven years ago I was 21 and could not walk, hold a

conversation and could barely even form a cohesive sentence. Thanks to my

doctor and to

long-term antibiotics, today I can.

- Frate

Darien