Post by Administration on Jan 30, 2006 21:38:47 GMT -5
For those in areas where Lyme isnt thought to be epidemic (which is basically everyewhere.. I know, I know)
Nail this guy with your emails...hehe..
Everyone can write.. but this is to mainly target the midwest I believe..
Take the time... just a few minutes..
Come on now.. I know ya feel like crap. Really lay it on good tho and make it count.....
Here is the announcement..
.....................................
The right to receive treatment for Lyme disease in the majority of states is being threatened, and we need to take action. If you live in a "non-endemic" state and have Lyme or a Lyme-like illness or know someone infected in a "non-endemic" state, please send an email message to Dr. David Dennis at epicurve@aol.com and tell him that people are getting infected after ti ck bites, develop serious consequences, and respond to antibiotics. (You don't have to say people get cured, just that there is a Herxheimer reaction and people do improve with antibiotics). Please tell him your story. He doesn't believe that Lyme exists in most states or that STARI is a bacterial infection. We need to convince him that Lyme and STARI are serious and that people need antibiotic treatmment. He has asked for doctors to get their state medical boards to prevent doctors from treating Lyme in non-endemic states and to prevent them from treating STARI. Please forward this message to other support groups and chat groups that you know. (Doctors should probably not respond to this message, as they may become targeted by Dr. Dennis.) Do not name any doctors in your message.
Dr. D avid Dennis is not an MD but is an epidemiologist in Colorado who used to work for the CDC there until he retired in 2003. He has stated in a letter to the editor in a recent issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases (2006:42, p.307, Jan.15) that "True Lyme disease cases cluster in 20 or so states in the northeastern, mid-Atlantic, upper midwestern and Pacific coastal regions; Lyme disease reported from states outside these regions is likely the result of exposures elsewhere or misdiagnosis. Without supporting scientific evidence, some medical professionals have promulgated the notion that Lyme disease exists throughout the United States, and that even those cases lacking evidence of complicated infection may sometimes require prolonged and intravenously administered courses of antibi otics in their treatment. To protect patients, governmental agencies should be encouraged to aggressively investigate and regulate laboratories and clinical practices that ignore accepted scientific standards in the diagnosis and management of Lyme disease and STARI." If Igenex and Bowen labs are restricted, many Lyme patients may never get diagnosed or treated. If doctors are not allowed to prescribe antibiotics, many more patients will become disabled and die, and new doctors will not want to take Lyme or STARI patients in these states. Dr. Dennis also said, "There is no evidence that antibiotics have any therapeutic effect on STARI. Such a conclusion could only be made after analyzing placebo-controlled trials." He thinks that, if people feel better with antibiotics, it's the placebo effect. Placebo-controlled research has not been conducted, but there is also no proof for his assumption that ant ibiotics are not effective.
In the Feb. 15 issue, p. 581, Dr. Dennis wrote another letter to the editor and said STARI is "A benign, self-limited, nonbacterial illness," which implies that it is mild and goes away without treatment. He also says that the definition of Lyme disease needs to be further restricted to establish "more rigorous inclusion criteria for patients who present with erythema migrans-like lesions in areas where Lyme disease is not endemic." He does not believe the rash in these states should be used as part of criteria for diagnosing Lyme disease.
His words may cause doctors to stop treating Lyme and STARI and cause those who do to lose their licenses. He specifically mentioned STARI in Missouri, so Missou ri doctors may be at greatest risk of losing their licenses. If we have no doctors to give us the antibiotics we need, a lot more people will die from Lyme or STARI in the next few years. Antibiotics are enabling children to go back to school and adults to get out of bed, and many even get well enough to go back to work. Without antibiotics, many more of us would be bedridden with intense pain and intense fatigue, and many of us would be insane. Antibiotics do a great job of clearing up the cognitive and psychiatric symptoms. Lyme and STARI are like syphilis. All 3 diseases have an early and a late stage; they are all caused by closely-related spirochetes (spiral-shaped bacteria); and they all have the same symptoms, except that the syphilis rash is different. Untreated, all these diseases can lead to arthritis, neurological disorders, blindness, and insanity.&n bsp;
STARI is tes ting positive to Borrelia burgdorferi at Igenex and Bowen labs and sometimes other labs. It may be a variation of Lyme, but we need more proof. We do know that patients improve with antibiotic treatment and need to be treated. Some people seem to get along fine after the early stage even without treatment, but there is no way to prove that they are cured rather than in remission, with the disease lying dormant and waiting to attack months or years later, when a person's immune system is suppressed by an accident, injury, illness, surgery, or emotional trauma. These events often bring out the disease.
Please write to Dr. Dennis if you got Lyme in a "non-endemic" state. Tell him if you recall a tick bite, what state you were in, wheth er you got a rash or illness, how severe the illness became, and how you respond to antibiotics. Please m ake your letter polite but convincing. You may also want to ask him to write a letter of apology to the journal for all the patients who will suffer if doctors follow his advice. He needs to recant his previous statements.
Let's bombard Dr. Dennis's email box with letters. Let's convince him that Lyme is all over the country, STARI is a serious illness, and that we are helped by antibiotics. Let's hope (and pray) that he will learn from our letters and write a letter of apology in a future issue of the journal.
Nail this guy with your emails...hehe..
Everyone can write.. but this is to mainly target the midwest I believe..
Take the time... just a few minutes..
Come on now.. I know ya feel like crap. Really lay it on good tho and make it count.....
Here is the announcement..
.....................................
The right to receive treatment for Lyme disease in the majority of states is being threatened, and we need to take action. If you live in a "non-endemic" state and have Lyme or a Lyme-like illness or know someone infected in a "non-endemic" state, please send an email message to Dr. David Dennis at epicurve@aol.com and tell him that people are getting infected after ti ck bites, develop serious consequences, and respond to antibiotics. (You don't have to say people get cured, just that there is a Herxheimer reaction and people do improve with antibiotics). Please tell him your story. He doesn't believe that Lyme exists in most states or that STARI is a bacterial infection. We need to convince him that Lyme and STARI are serious and that people need antibiotic treatmment. He has asked for doctors to get their state medical boards to prevent doctors from treating Lyme in non-endemic states and to prevent them from treating STARI. Please forward this message to other support groups and chat groups that you know. (Doctors should probably not respond to this message, as they may become targeted by Dr. Dennis.) Do not name any doctors in your message.
Dr. D avid Dennis is not an MD but is an epidemiologist in Colorado who used to work for the CDC there until he retired in 2003. He has stated in a letter to the editor in a recent issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases (2006:42, p.307, Jan.15) that "True Lyme disease cases cluster in 20 or so states in the northeastern, mid-Atlantic, upper midwestern and Pacific coastal regions; Lyme disease reported from states outside these regions is likely the result of exposures elsewhere or misdiagnosis. Without supporting scientific evidence, some medical professionals have promulgated the notion that Lyme disease exists throughout the United States, and that even those cases lacking evidence of complicated infection may sometimes require prolonged and intravenously administered courses of antibi otics in their treatment. To protect patients, governmental agencies should be encouraged to aggressively investigate and regulate laboratories and clinical practices that ignore accepted scientific standards in the diagnosis and management of Lyme disease and STARI." If Igenex and Bowen labs are restricted, many Lyme patients may never get diagnosed or treated. If doctors are not allowed to prescribe antibiotics, many more patients will become disabled and die, and new doctors will not want to take Lyme or STARI patients in these states. Dr. Dennis also said, "There is no evidence that antibiotics have any therapeutic effect on STARI. Such a conclusion could only be made after analyzing placebo-controlled trials." He thinks that, if people feel better with antibiotics, it's the placebo effect. Placebo-controlled research has not been conducted, but there is also no proof for his assumption that ant ibiotics are not effective.
In the Feb. 15 issue, p. 581, Dr. Dennis wrote another letter to the editor and said STARI is "A benign, self-limited, nonbacterial illness," which implies that it is mild and goes away without treatment. He also says that the definition of Lyme disease needs to be further restricted to establish "more rigorous inclusion criteria for patients who present with erythema migrans-like lesions in areas where Lyme disease is not endemic." He does not believe the rash in these states should be used as part of criteria for diagnosing Lyme disease.
His words may cause doctors to stop treating Lyme and STARI and cause those who do to lose their licenses. He specifically mentioned STARI in Missouri, so Missou ri doctors may be at greatest risk of losing their licenses. If we have no doctors to give us the antibiotics we need, a lot more people will die from Lyme or STARI in the next few years. Antibiotics are enabling children to go back to school and adults to get out of bed, and many even get well enough to go back to work. Without antibiotics, many more of us would be bedridden with intense pain and intense fatigue, and many of us would be insane. Antibiotics do a great job of clearing up the cognitive and psychiatric symptoms. Lyme and STARI are like syphilis. All 3 diseases have an early and a late stage; they are all caused by closely-related spirochetes (spiral-shaped bacteria); and they all have the same symptoms, except that the syphilis rash is different. Untreated, all these diseases can lead to arthritis, neurological disorders, blindness, and insanity.&n bsp;
STARI is tes ting positive to Borrelia burgdorferi at Igenex and Bowen labs and sometimes other labs. It may be a variation of Lyme, but we need more proof. We do know that patients improve with antibiotic treatment and need to be treated. Some people seem to get along fine after the early stage even without treatment, but there is no way to prove that they are cured rather than in remission, with the disease lying dormant and waiting to attack months or years later, when a person's immune system is suppressed by an accident, injury, illness, surgery, or emotional trauma. These events often bring out the disease.
Please write to Dr. Dennis if you got Lyme in a "non-endemic" state. Tell him if you recall a tick bite, what state you were in, wheth er you got a rash or illness, how severe the illness became, and how you respond to antibiotics. Please m ake your letter polite but convincing. You may also want to ask him to write a letter of apology to the journal for all the patients who will suffer if doctors follow his advice. He needs to recant his previous statements.
Let's bombard Dr. Dennis's email box with letters. Let's convince him that Lyme is all over the country, STARI is a serious illness, and that we are helped by antibiotics. Let's hope (and pray) that he will learn from our letters and write a letter of apology in a future issue of the journal.