!! More Info. on Settlement Guidelines for Lyme !!

[Guest guest]

Here is some more information on the settlement stemming from the

Crminal Investigation of the IDSA on Lyme Treatment Guidelines.

Thank you Attorney General Blumenthal!

Heidi N

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SPREAD THE NEWS!

The Office of Connecticut Attorney General Blumenthal held a

press conference at 11:00 a.m. EST yesterday morning and announced

the settlement agreement resulting from the Attorney General's

Criminal Investigative Demand of the Infectious Diseases Society of

America.

The AG's press release is at:

http://www.ct.gov/ag/cwp/view.asp?a=2795 & q=414284

The full text of the agreement is at:

http://www.ct.gov/ag/lib/ag/health/idsaagreement.pdf

The investigation found significant undisclosed financial conflicts

of interest among the panel members and selective use of the science

in development of the controversial IDSA Lyme disease guidelines.

Among other questionable issues, the IDSA and the American Academy of

Neurology (AAN) are strongly suggested to have conspired to bolster

their individual guidelines developed by many of the same

individuals.

The settlement requires the IDSA to reassess the guidelines,

including the science, under the auspices of an arbiter (a

distinguished physician ethicist within the UT System). The

settlement further stipulates that a completely new panel must be

formed from members selected through application to accomplish the

reassessment. None of the previous panel members can serve on the

new panel.

The full release is well worth reading and notes a long list of other

irregularities and questionable practices, many of which violate the

IDSA's own conflict of interest policy and imply third party

collaboration in a scheme to suppress other opinion (Feder – NEJM).

In spite of this benchmark agreement, the IDSA still remains without

remorse:

http://www.idsociety.org/Content.aspx?id=11182

and claims the guidelines remain in effect and are intact. However,

the settlement agreement extensively dispels that claim.

This agreement should be presented to counter any insurance denials,

to deter any Infectious Disease specialist from claiming harm or no

benefit from long term treatment protocols, and as an affirmative

defense by physicians under attack by state medical boards for

competent Lyme treatment.

Congratulations are in order to the many people that made this

possible, but especially to Pat of the Lyme Disease

Association, Inc., and to the formidable Medico-Legal team of Dr.

Ray Stricker, immediate past president of ILADS, and Lorraine

, J. D., Exe. Dir. Of CALDA, whose work corner stoned the

technical and legal positions that brought this matter forward and

sustained it in the headlines.

// STAND UP FOR LYME

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