- The Journal of Degenerative Diseases
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- Lyme Disease - Denial of Treatment and Doctor Persecution
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- The Lyme Disease epidemic, along with it's many co-infections,
is sweeping across North America like Wildfire. At the same time doctors
who are courageous enough to treat the chronic Lyme patients till they
are well, are being picked off one by one.
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- In the Connecticut/New York area where I live, doctors
have to be very careful concerning the number of Lyme patients they treat
and also how long they treat them for. Patients are not getting the antibiotics
they require and as a result their disease can become irreversible and
progressively more debilitating. People have died from Lyme Disease. When
patients begin to go downhill many of those who were originally diagnosed
with Lyme are now assigned different disease labels, according to what
ever organ system is affected. It appears that this is one method of downplaying
an epidemic.
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- Yale University is one of the main forces behind Lyme
patients' treatment denial. Yale contends that 3 to 4 weeks of antibiotics
is a sufficient protocol for just about every case. If a patient is still
sick with the exact same symptoms on the 31st day of treatment, they now,
according to Yale, no longer have an active infection but automatically
now have an autoimmune problem....Fibromyalgia, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome,
depression or "antibiotic seeking behavior".
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- I have yet to see any evidence provided by Yale that
would support this theory or speculation. Testing is very inaccurate which
means it cannot be used as definite proof of infection or noninfection.
Many chronic lyme patients will tell the same story of relapsing when antibiotics
are discontinued. Some doctors claim that patients continue to improve
when on extended antibiotics (after the approved one month period) because
the antibiotics may have an antinflammatory or immunomodulatory effect
and are not improving necessarily because the drugs are killing off an
active infection. It is possible that the antibiotics may be working by
some other mechanism that we are not yet aware of, but the point is that,
if the treatment is working and has minimal side effects, then isn't it
better to treat and prevent inevitable deterioration of the patient....
at least until a better solution is found?
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- There is much talk in the mainstream media concerning
antibiotic resistance and this concept is used many times to justify nontreatment.
We all know that the concept of antibiotic resistance has validity but
it is never mentioned that certain labs are intentionally creating antibiotic
resistant microbes for biowarfare purposes. These "modified"
biologicals require some sort of field testing. Could the Lyme Disease
spirochete be modified...a product of biowarfare research? Could this be
the reason it is so difficult to eradicate? Another troubling thought is
why are chronic acne patients allowed to recieve years of antibiotic treatment
with no hassle whatsoever, when those with a much more serious, often progressive
disease, are denied the same treatment?
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- Many place the blame of this strange behavior from the
medical community, mainly on the insurance companies. I question this
and feel that the reasons for treatment denial go much deeper. Insurance
companies most likely do play a role. However, it appears to me that it
would be many times more expensive for insurance companies to refuse paying
for long term antibiotic treatment ( especially considering that oral antibiotics
are fairly inexpensive) than it would be to treat those patients. The patients
who are refused antibiotics and are told they have an autoimmune disease
or that it is 'all in their heads', proceed to go from doctor to doctor
and many end up recieving almost every medical test known to man, including
MRIs, X-Rays, tilt table tests, Spect Scans,antidepressant medications...and
I could go on almost indefinitely. Costs for those denied antibiotics become
astronomical.
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- As I was trying to make sense of this extremely puzzling,
nonsensical situation, I was sent some information from a very reliable
source, which stated that 60% of chronic lyme patients are coinfected with
several strains of mycoplasma, the most common one being "mycoplasma
fermentens" which is patented by the U.S. Army and army pathologist
Dr. Lo!
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- Lo, Shyh-Ching-Pathogenic mycoplasma-U.S. Patent 5,242,820
issued Sept. 7, 1993.
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- It is becoming evident that any microbe that has been
"modified" is considered "off limits" for treatment
and any physician that takes these chronic infections seriously, is targeted
for harassment. This same pathogen is found in Gulf war Illness, Fibromyalgia
and Chronic Fatigue patients! Could this be the main reason why the symptoms
of all these diseases overlap to such a degree and all seem to have emerged
around the same time period?
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- As mentioned in an earlier issue of the Journal of Degenerative
Diseases, I live and work almost directly across the water from Plum Island,
off the tip of Long Island, N.Y.. Years ago, in 1897, the War Dept. owned
Plum Island which was then called Fort Terry. In 1954 the Army officially
transferred Fort Terry over to the USDA to be used as an animal disease
laboratory. Fairly recently Plum Island requested 75 million dollars
to upgrade the facility to a bio-level 4 status for the express purpose
of reinstating biowarfare research.
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- It seems very coincidental that....
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- 1) Lyme disease is endemic to all land areas surrounding
Plum Island.
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- 2) Many Lyme and Gulf war Ilness patients are infected
with the same genetically engineered organism (mycoplasma fermentens) created
and patented by the US Government.
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- 3) Lyme Disease and Gulf War Illness share almost identical
symptoms.
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- 4) Doxycycline is one of the drugs of choice for both
diseases.
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- 5) Both sets of patients are being denied antibiotic
treatment.
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- 6) I spoke with Dr. Thomas, the previous Director of
Plum Island, who admitted that an Iraqi researcher (who has since been
murdered) did his graduate training at Plum Island, specifically involving
different strains of mycoplasma. He went back to Iraq and headed up the
mycoplasma research program at the University of Bagdad. I asked Dr. Thomas
if Plum Island ever worked with mycoplasmas in general. She denied this
at the beginning but gradually admitted researching 7 different different
strains. I asked if Plum Island researchers ever worked with mycoplasma
fermentens. She was immediately familiar with that particular genetically
engineered strain although she did deny that Plum Island researchers ever
worked with it.
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- 7) Yale University often works with Plum Island on various
projects and they are in close proximity to each other.
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- 8) Yale, again, is one of the main opponents of long
term antibiotic treatment for Lyme Disease in spite of it's obvious benefits.
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- It is extremely suspicious that one of the most Lyme-endemic
areas in the country only has a handful of doctors that will treat chronic
patients. Syphilis is also a spirochetal disease, as is lyme. and is known
to sometimes require open-ended antibiotic treatment. Webster's dictionary
states that untreated Syphilis may result in the degeneration of many organs
and tissues of the human body. Could Lyme disease be another Tuskegee experiment?
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- Why is there so much attention and propaganda directed
at west Nile Virus and Anthrax when these diseases have affected only a
few people? I feel that all this media attention to the above two disease
causing pathogens involves several agendas which include creating a smokescreen
to divert our attention from the more subtle biowarfare pathogens that
are already in our midst, destroying countless lives.
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- I am a cofacilitator of one of the only Lyme Disease
support groups in southeastern CT. It is appalling and very frightening
to witness the massive numbers of previously intelligent and productive
people whose lives are being completely ruined by this disease and it's
coinfections such as mycoplasma. babesia and erichliosis. Lyme disease
is very misunderstood ( mainly due to media misinformation)and as a result
patients' families are disintegrating, patients are losing their jobs,
their homes, their insurance, their friends, their dignity and even their
minds. Many regret the loss of their minds the most.
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- Chronic lyme disease can manifest itself with severe
neurological symptoms, many which originate in the brain. SPECT scans,
which measure blood flow to the brain, show decreased patchy perfusion
to specific areas in the patient's brain which usually correlates with
their neurological symptoms. Most patients, after sufficient antibiotic
treatment, show much improvement in symptoms and in perfusion. Those who
have not recieved sufficient treatment or who were treated too late in
the disease complain that they are not the same person that they used to
be. Many comment that this disease has taken away everything that they
hold dear, their brain and even their souls.
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- Our country is becoming disabled...perhaps intentionally?
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- The attack on our concerned and compassionate Lyme literate
physicians is equally appalling. Our support group here in Connecticut
only knows 5 or 6 doctors in the whole state that we can refer Chronic
Lyme disease patients to. Several of those few doctors are currently under
unwarranted investigation.
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- Massive numbers of people sick with Chronic Lyme are
flocking to these few doctors looking for answers, which not only overwhelms
the doctors, but also attaches a stigma to them which then attracts State
investigation and sometimes the removal of their medical license.
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- The most distressing case in the Notheast is that of
Dr. Joseph Burrascano. Many Lyme Disease patients owe their lives to him.
Dr. Burrascano is nationally renowned for his dedicated research and treatment
of Lyme disease. He is well respected by his colleagues and many doctors
who treat these patients, use his protocols. In 1993 Dr. Burrascano spoke
at a Senate Committee Hearing on Lyme disease. I am including several
excerpts from his testimony.
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- " There is a core group of university-based Lyme
Disease researchers whose opinions carry a great deal of weight. Unfortunately
many of them act unscientifically and unethically. They adhere to outdated,
self-serving views and attempt to personally discredit those whose opinions
differ from their own. They exert strong ethically questionable influence
on medical journals, which enables them to publish and promote articles
that are badly flawed. They work with certain government agencies to bias
the agenda of consensus and have worked to exclude from these meetings
and scientific seminars those with alternate opinions. They behave this
way for reasons of personal or professional gain and are involved in obvious
conflicts of interest."
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- "Following the lead of this group of physicians,
a few state health departments have begun to investigate, in a very threatening
way, physicians who have more open minded views on Lyme Disease diagnoses
and treatment than they do. Indeed, I must confess that I feel I am taking
a large risk here today by publically stating these views, for fear that
I may suffer some negative repercussions, despite the fact that many hundreds
of physicians all over the world agree with what i am saying here. Because
of this bias by this inner circle, Lyme Disease is both under diagnosed
and under treated, to the great detriment of many of our fellow citizens."
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- "The very existence of hundreds of Lyme Disease
support groups in this country, and tens of thousands of dissatisfied,
mistreated and very ill patients whom these groups represent, underscores
the many problems that exist out in the real world of Lyme Disease. I ask
and plead with you to hear their voices, listen to their stories and work
in an honest and unbiased way to help protect the many sufferers whose
health is at risk from what now has become a political disease."
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- Dr. Burrascano has indeed suffered repercussions since
his testimony in 1993. He has spent the last couple of years defending
himself and other Lyme literate physicians. Burrascano was charged with
professional misconduct for the sole reason of treating Lyme patients with
long term antibiotics, when needed. In November of 2001 he was exonerated
concerning the 39 charges filed against him. However, this ordeal seriously
affected him emotionally, physically and financially. Is it any wonder
that physicians are acting so strangely when confronted with patients who
present with these "Unacceptable illnesses" such as Chronic Fatigue
syndrome, Gulf war Illness, Lyme , etc?
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- We must speak out against this blatant bureaucratic bullying
and harassment before all our doctors are corporate owned and controlled
and we are all too sick to do anything about it.
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