IDSA Guidelines

27/10/2006

The IDSA recently published new guidelines on the treatment of lyme disease, in the Clinical Infectious Diseases.

They can be viewed online, The Clinical Assessment, Treatment, and Prevention of Lyme Disease, Human Granulocytic Anaplasmosis, and Babesiosis: Clinical Practice Guidelines by the Infectious Diseases Society of America

ILADS has demanded a retraction of these guidelines.

http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=75220

10/27/2006 5:12:00 PM

To: National Desk, Health Reporter

Contact: Raphael Stricker, 415-823-4007 or Richard Horowitz, 845-229-8977 or Barbara Buchman, 301-263-1080, all of International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society

WASHINGTON, Oct. 27 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Recently published Lyme disease guidelines from the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) "threaten to harm patients and patient care," writes Dr. Raphael Stricker, president of the International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society (ILADS) in an angry and highly unusual letter to Dr. Sherwood Gorbach, editor of 'Clinical Infectious Diseases.' The letter calls for retraction of the article, "The clinical assessment, treatment, and prevention of Lyme disease, human granulocytic anaplasmosis, and babesiosis: Clinical practice guidelines by the Infectious Diseases Society of America."

Authors used exclusionary data selection, writes Dr. Stricker, which substantially biased the resulting diagnosis and treatment recommendations and ignored opposing or dissenting views.

Lyme disease is a major public health problem caused by a complex bacterial agent carried and spread by ticks. Lyme bacteria have the ability to evade immune destruction, entrench themselves deep within tissues and migrate throughout the body causing a multi-system illness. There is no single reliable diagnostic laboratory test and there is no universally accepted treatment for Lyme disease.

In a point-by-point analysis of the guidelines, Dr. Stricker states IDSA's position reflects a biased view of the disease that's either unsubstantiated or refuted by existing peer- reviewed medical literature. "The IDSA's 'one-size fits all' approach to Lyme diagnosis and treatment will result in misdiagnosis and denial of care to thousands of patients annually," writes Dr. Stricker in the letter to Dr. Gorbach, "creating a public health burden as...patients become chronically ill and disabled."

"We believe the same principles of scientific integrity that apply to medical research should also apply to practice guidelines," states Dr. Stricker. The IDSA authors deliberately excluded divergent points of view, he adds. As a result, ten of IDSA's central recommendations are based solely on opinion, considered the weakest level of evidence in science circles.

ILADS demands immediate retraction of the guidelines article and subsequent CDC notification; creation of a new Lyme disease guidelines committee comprised of diverse points of view to reformulate the guidelines; and then submission of revised guidelines for outside peer review to a medical journal independent of IDSA.

Dr. Stricker's letter was widely distributed to CDC, NIH, FDA and leading national physician organizations.

ILADS ( http://releases.usnewswire.com/redir.asp?ReleaseID=75220&Link=http://www.ilads.org ) is a multi-specialty medical society comprised of all sub-specialists who treat Lyme disease, including infectious disease specialists, neurologists, rheumatologists, psychiatrists, endocrinologists and internal medicine physicians. President Dr. Raphael B. Stricker is medical director of Union Square Medical Associates in San Francisco.

http://releases.usnewswire.com/redir.asp?ReleaseID=75220&Link=http://www.usnewswire.com/

-0-