http://www.autoimmunityresearch.org/lyme-disease/LYME DISEASE (Borreliosis)
A Plague of Ignorance Regarding the Ignorance of a Plague
© Copyright 2004, Dr Scott Taylor, DVM, All rights Reserved
My objective for writing this report is to help inform the layman and the medical community about the extremely complex infection called Lyme disease. I have recently been infected with Lyme disease and I will share my experience and what I have learned about the complex nature of Lyme disease in this report. I continue to update this report and I foresee many revisions of it in the future as more information regarding Lyme disease surfaces. I have recently been introduced to a major medical breakthrough discovered by Dr. Trevor Marshall, research director at the Autoimmunity Research Foundation in Thousand Oaks, CA. I have updated this version of the report to include this vital information.
Lyme disease (LD) is a seriously complex multi-system inflammatory disease that is triggered by the bacterial lipoproteins (BLPs) produced by the spiral-shaped bacteria called Borrelia. Borrelia are difficult to isolate, grow, and study in the laboratory. So, our technical knowledge of this pathogen is poor compared to our understanding of most bacteria that cause disease. Transmission of Borrelia occurs primarily through the bite of ticks. The disease affects every tissue and every major organ system in the body. Clinically, it can appear as a chronic arthalgia (joint pain), fibromyalgia (fibrous connective tissue and muscle pain), chronic fatigue, immune dysfunction and as neurological disease. LD may even be fatal in severe cases.
The diagnosis of Lyme disease is primary based upon clinical evidence. There is currently no laboratory test that is definitive for Lyme disease. Many tests give false negative results. Physicians not familiar with the complex clinical presentation of Lyme disease frequently misdiagnose it as other disorders such as: Fibromyalgia or Chronic Fatigue Immune Dysfunction Syndrome (CFIDS), Multiple Sclerosis, Lupus, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Motor Neuron Disease (ALS, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis -Lou Gherig's disease), Multiple Chemical Sensitivity Syndrome (MCS) and numerous other psychiatric disorders such as depression and anxiety.
Lyme disease is a familiar name to most people, but their knowledge of it is very limited. Unfortunately, this is also true for most professionals in the medical community. There have been numerous reports in the media about it in the United States over the past 25 years. These superficial articles report something about small deer ticks transmitting bacteria called Borrelia burgdorferi. The tick vectors are said to be mainly restricted to certain endemic areas of the United States, which are the Northeast and the upper Midwest. Frequently mentioned is the bulls-eye skin rash that develops following the bite of an infected tick. The disease is reported to begin with flu-like symptoms that progress to an arthritic and fibromyalgic condition. It is often said that Lyme disease can be readily treated with standard regimens of antibiotics. While these reports are partially true, they are also critically erroneous and very misleading!
This report is an urgent warning for everyone. Lyme disease is devastating the lives of hundreds of thousands of individuals and we are all at risk. Many patients are suffering with chronic Lyme disease and continue to be misdiagnosed and mistreated. In many cases of Lyme disease, a correct diagnosis doesn’t occur until after several months or more often many years of suffering with the disease. By then it has caused severe illness, disability and permanent damage. The disease is widespread and the prevalence is significantly higher than reported by health officials.
It is very unfortunate that most physicians don’t know how to recognize and treat cases of Lyme disease, especially the illusive cases of chronic Lyme disease. I’m not just talking about general MDs being ignorant; I am also referring to specialists such as: rheumatologists, neurologists, orthopedic surgeons, cardiologists, psychiatrists, and the most ignorant actually seem to be infectious disease specialists. I was extremely surprised by this plague of ignorance after I began my investigation of Lyme disease.
There are some key factors that exist in the medical community regarding Lyme disease; they go a long way in explaining why LD is often misdiagnosed and mistreated:
[click on above link for the remainder of this excellent article)
