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Let's not forget he helped many patients reach their disability pensions. That he helped validate their disease when other clinicians, and sometimes even friends and family, only offered disdain. He at least tried - there aren't many that are willing to even do that. We worry about a shrinking...

Yes, the CDC is backing this initiative, ostensibly to spare the common physician the complexities of the Western Blot. Also ostensibly, to save money. One step forward, two steps back.

You've made impressive headway with this, @chrisb. I am not well enough at the moment to try to dig thru the book, but what I seem to remember that might help is two things. First, my sense was WB was taken aback to see this particular rickettsial agent in the US. It had never been seen in the...

Evidently the C6 test - the Lyme test of choice in the UK - may not distinguish between Lyme and B. Miyamotoi. https://www.clinicalmicrobiologyandinfection.com/article/S1198-743X(19)30418-5/fulltext

NHS, last I checked, employs a C6 to test for Lyme. This study suggests a diifferent interpretation needs to be at least considered if a positive is rendered: B Miyamotoi. https://www.clinicalmicrobiologyandinfection.com/article/S1198-743X(19)30418-5/fulltext Edit to Add: What kind of...

A long read, but a fair attempt at a balanced shaping of the contemporary Lyme controversy - from the perspective of a hapless Lyme (maybe) patient. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/09/life-with-lyme/594736/

Self-Management Technologies? Like on the The Jetsons? Well, that flying car is pretty cool, and all the robots would be helpful, but my heart belongs to Astro, so it's a difficult thing.. How about any technology that extracts The Media from up the posterior of State Medical Nonsense?

That would not hold true necessarily in the US. I cannot speak for the UK - personally I am a fan of the C6, but too many question the voracity of the highly conserved protein claim. I think a good measure would be multiple tests over a measured period of time. If the symptoms suggest Bb...

I agree with most of that you have written, @Robert 1973 , but I just wanted to address this part of your post. This false negative being alluded to is, if I am interpreting correctly, associated with testing too early. Humans as a rule fail to produce antibodies to Bb for the first 30 days or...

Essentially? The ELISA is notoriously suspect diagnostically. If she was limited to acute Bb then she would by definition not be familiar with late stage Lyme. It's when it progresses to late stage that many of the long term issues manifest, both in terms of diagnostics and treatment. Circular...

Not that I am aware. Agreed. Representative Chris Smith's legislation may be a step in that direction, but I'm not counting on much coming from it. It's pretty much the same ole, same ole coming out of the entrenched Lyme establishment. They are still hell-bent on denying anything persistently...

Nemotodes. Over the years, investigators other than the EIS and their disciples tried to independently nail down what was making people sick. This would be especially true in the latter 80's when it became strikingly clear that a tactic being embraced was to minimize the patient experience. So...

Or a nonfiction expose. The i dammini screw-up was just, imo, emblematic of the obscene nexus of missteps and outright mistakes that characterize the investigation into the causative agent(s) behind that ever-expanding circle of very, very sick people whose epicenter was Lyme, CT. If it were a...

I wonder if his paths ever crossed with Erich Traub. Writings and musings of WB seem to suggest he was a little taken aback at seeing the spirochete, and there is an argument that he shouldn't have been. I also have trouble reconciling his fervent belief in the Swiss Agent until late 1980 or...

Still more indirect methods, at the expense, potentially, of the western blot - and knowing about the specifics of your WB can help reduce the chance of a false result. This feels like either an attempt to save $'s, or worse. Direct testing is desperately needed. Direct testing for both early...

Maybe. I would not underestimate the impact levied by news of the new IDSA Lyme Guidelines draft release in the US. Most UK Lyme strategy, at least historically from circa 1990, has been deeply influenced by its US counterparts.

Well, let's see...The CDC, the IDSA, the NIH, the ALDF. Off the top of my head. :) SMC? In the US for those who embrace the Post Treatment Lyme Disease explanation, Plaquenil is popular. Eh.

Now that made me chuckle. :) I am not asymptomatic. But I think many who continue to test positive may be. That's just speculation though. And a big nod toward your "pragmatism." The problem I have with PTLD is that those who advocate it often suggest immunosuppessants. If they are wrong...

Maybe you are right. Not sure where asymptomatic would fall, but your idea has a lot of merit. How do you factor in when it resists treatment?

Here's another question, @richie : you know the theory that says once infected you may always test positive? What if the reason you always test positive is because you've never cleared the infection? To this day, they cannot give a convincing argument why a C6 will decline upon successful...