!! Hot News: Lyme Disease Settlement on Treatment Guidelines !!

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Settlement Announced in Landmark Investigation of Lyme Disease

Diagnosis

and Treatment Guidelines

Patients' Rights Groups Applaud Connecticut Attorney General

Blumenthal's Settlement in Anti-trust Case Against Powerful Medical

Society

Hartford, CT – Patients' rights groups today hailed Connecticut

Attorney

General Blumenthal's announcement of a settlement in a landmark

antitrust investigation into the Lyme treatment guidelines of the

Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA).

" My office uncovered undisclosed financial interests held by several

of

the most powerful IDSA panelists, " said Blumenthal. " The IDSA's

guideline panel improperly ignored, or minimized, consideration of

alternative medical opinion and evidence regarding chronic Lyme

disease,

potentially raising serious questions about whether the

recommendations

reflected all relevant science. "

The groundbreaking settlement announced today forces a complete review

of the IDSA guidelines by a new panel free from conflicts of interest,

specifically excluding previous panel members. This panel will

consider

a range of scientific evidence in a public forum broadcast live over

the

internet and will be overseen by a specialist in financial conflicts

of

interest in medicine.

" This settlement makes it clear that the IDSA guideline development

process was corrupted by a commercially driven panel that excluded

evidence supporting longer term treatment of Lyme disease, " said

attorney Lorraine , Executive Director of the California Lyme

Disease Association (CALDA). " This settlement allows suppressed

scientific viewpoints and evidence to be heard, and it is promising

news

for patients. "

This is the first-ever antitrust investigation against a medical

society's guidelines development process.

" We congratulate Attorney General Blumenthal for exposing the IDSA's

conflicts of interest and helping reduce the suffering of Lyme

patients

everywhere, " said Pat , president of the national Lyme Disease

Association (LDA). " The IDSA guidelines are dangerous for patients who

suffer longer-term Lyme symptoms that do not fall within the IDSA's

narrow disease definition. "

The IDSA guidelines are treated as mandatory within the medical

community. More than 50 physicians who use longer-term treatment

approaches have been investigated or sanctioned by state medical

boards.

The guidelines can also result in financial problems for patients,

since

insurance companies refuse to reimburse for longer-term treatment and

pharmacies may refuse to fill prescriptions.

The majority of individuals involved in the IDSA guidelines

development

process held direct or indirect commercial interests related to Lyme

vaccines, patents, and/or test kits, and did not take the opinions or

experiences of the competing Lyme groups into account.

While the announcement of a settlement comes as a huge relief to

suffering Lyme patients, the case has much broader implications for a

health care system that often contends with conflicts-of-interest in

guideline processes – guidelines which are often used by insurance

companies to limit diagnosis and treatment options.

" Today's settlement marks an important victory for all patients who

suffer Lyme disease, but it is also a victory for anyone concerned

about

health care, " said . " Commercially driven guidelines that limit

patient treatment options are a major issue today in healthcare, and

this decision marks an important step towards addressing it. "

The national Lyme Disease Association, (LDA), CALDA, and Time for Lyme

are non-profit organizations that were founded by individuals who had

personal experience with Lyme disease, in order to address the lack of

education and support services available for this newly emerging

infection.