IDSA: "Actually, we have no clue what we're talking about."

[Mort Zuckerman]

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Subject: IDSA: "Actually, we have no clue what we're talking about."

Date: Oct 17, 2008 5:56 AM

"Lyme occurs in a broad range of hosts, from birds to small rodents to
dogs
and horses, said veterinarian Stephen W. Barthold, director of the
Center for Comparative
Medicine at UC Davis. It's spread among the animals, as well as to
humans, through
the bites of some species of ticks.

"It's a non-denominational pathogen," he said. [Even infects
chemists,
smart people and non-crazy people]

"Barthold will discuss in San Francisco this weekend his studies
focusing on
the persistence of the bacteria. He gave antibiotics to Lyme-infected
mice for a
month, but found a low-level amount of bacteria still remaining.

"When the infection sets in, it disseminates randomly throughout the
body,"
he said. "It's a very difficult agent to approach medically and
scientifically.
... *** I've been working on this disease for 22 years and I haven't
figured
it out yet." ***

=================================================

Well, we'll know that if the discussion comes to the bogus
testing and the Pam3Cys immune suppression and activation
of latent viruses of all kinds, certain stalking and lying
science journalists have been reading my posts and website,
won't we? Nobody else ever has demonstrated a knowledge and
pursuit of what was wrong with OspA - STRUCTURALLY - besides
yours truly, Corrupticut's own "dangerously intelligent"
"Unabomber Chemist."

Pat Smith will surely mention to the crowd that she specifically
hired Pam Weintraub to re-write my Conflicts of Interest
Summaries, since Pat Smith never lies.

And pigs are known to spontaneously grow wings.

Kathleen M. Dickson
New Great Imitator IDSA Special:
http://www.actionlyme.org/EBV_LYME_MS.htm
http://www.geocities.com/kmdickson0308/lyme-dilemma.html
http://www.actionlyme.org
http://www.actionlyme.org
=============================================================================
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/10/16/BAEO13HLC2.DTL
S.F. meetings to discuss Lyme disease

Elizabeth Fernandez, Chronicle Staff Writer

Friday, October 17, 2008
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Tom Eddington was a hard-flying executive when, in the mid-1990s, he
suddenly became
ill. After a battery of tests, he learned that he had Lyme disease.
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His health stabilized for eight years, then began deteriorating. He
was forced to
quit his job when he was 44.

"Lyme disease is like an alien - the bacteria tries to take over your
body,"
said the Mill Valley man who is on permanent disability.

Starting today through Sunday, two back-to-back medical conferences on
Lyme disease
will be held in San Francisco at the Cathedral Hill Hotel. The
conferences are geared
toward medical professionals and advocates.

"Our hope is that the cutting edge researchers who will be speaking
will be
able to educate other doctors and researchers about the problems
associated with
Lyme and other tick-borne illnesses," said Pat Smith, president of the
Lyme
Disease Association which is holding the Friday conference.

Transmitted by infected ticks, Lyme disease is the most commonly
reported vector-borne
illness in the United States. Yet today - three decades after an
investigation into
a cluster of arthritis among children living near Lyme, Conn. - it can
still be
difficult to diagnose, and medical experts don't always agree on
treatment.
Conflict over treatment

The Infectious Diseases Society of America calls for short-term
antibiotic treatment:
10 to 28 days of oral antibiotics is highly effective, particularly
when the disease
is diagnosed and quickly treated. The organization says that longer
antibiotic therapy
is ineffective and potentially dangerous.

But a number of doctors believe that short-term treatment is
inadequate, particularly
for patients with chronic symptoms. They say that patients should be
treated long-term
with antibiotics. The IDSA, which set the national guidelines for
treatment, is
reviewing its recommendations under an agreement reached several
months ago with
the attorney general of Connecticut. For his patients, San Francisco
physician Raphael
Stricker prescribes open-ended antibiotic treatment. Stricker, who
treats 1,600
patients with chronic Lyme disease, says it simply works.

"It can take literally years, but most patients do recover pretty much
completely,"
he said. "They can go back to work, they have their lives back."

Early treatment is urged - experts say that over time the untreated
microbe responsible
for Lyme can attack a panoply of organs. The difficulty with catching
the disease
early, though, is that it may masquerade as other illnesses, such as
fibromyalgia
or multiple sclerosis.

Pinpointing the disease can take years for some patients, said
Stricker.

"Lyme is a hidden epidemic," he said. "The bacteria can be very
difficult
to eradicate, it can get into muscles and joints, the nervous system,
the peripheral
nerves, the heart, the brain. Patients go from doctor to doctor, they
don't
know what's making them sick."

Four years after symptoms began for Lee Lull, 65, a Corte Madera
nurse, she was
diagnosed with the disease in 1997. Her first symptoms were a stiff
neck and crushing
fatigue.

"Lyme is not a cut-and-dried disease," said Lull, who has served on a
statewide Lyme advisory committee. "Because the test is not
definitive, many
people are undiagnosed and untreated."

Some 20,000 to 25,000 cases of Lyme are reported in the United States
annually,
but the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates
that the actual
number might exceed 200,000.

From 1992 to 1996, a quarter million cases were tallied by the CDC,
doubling during
that time span. While the disease is most prevalent in the Northeast
and north-central
states, ticks that carry the disease have been found in most of
California's
58 counties. The number of reported cases in California annually since
1993 has
ranged from 48 to 154, but many believe there are far more unreported
cases.
Initial symptoms

Fever, swollen glands, fatigue are common initial symptoms of Lyme
disease. Some
patients also experience a "bull's-eye" rash.

Diana Rocha, a businesswoman and avid athlete - she surfed, hiked,
went to the gym
daily - got the telltale rash on both legs after hiking in Santa Cruz
in the early
1990s. Her doctor told her it was just an allergic reaction to bug
bites.

Rocha, 44, became totally disabled in 2001. Doctors diagnosed her with
a litany
of illnesses, "but nobody could tell me why I was so sick with so many
things,"
said the San Francisco resident. "For the first time in my life I was
stopped
dead in my tracks."

It took two years, 22 doctors and much sleuthing on Rocha's part
before the
Lyme diagnosis was made.

"I don't have the health or stamina of a normal person," she said.
"I have good days and bad days, but I keep making progress."

Lyme occurs in a broad range of hosts, from birds to small rodents to
dogs and horses,
said veterinarian Stephen W. Barthold, director of the Center for
Comparative Medicine
at UC Davis. It's spread among the animals, as well as to humans,
through the
bites of some species of ticks.

"It's a non-denominational pathogen," he said.

Barthold will discuss in San Francisco this weekend his studies
focusing on the
persistence of the bacteria. He gave antibiotics to Lyme-infected mice
for a month,
but found a low-level amount of bacteria still remaining.

"When the infection sets in, it disseminates randomly throughout the
body,"
he said. "It's a very difficult agent to approach medically and
scientifically.
... I've been working on this disease for 22 years and I haven't
figured
it out yet."