Why Lobby?
LDA is working to alert politicians to the difficulties and injustices that Lyme disease sufferers face, and to the damage this is doing to the otherwise good reputation of the UK’s health services.
MPs cannot force medical opinion to change, but they can apply pressure to make the case for Lyme heard.
The problem
- Lyme disease is increasing in the UK
- It can be chronic and severe
- It is prone to misdiagnosis and lack of adequate treatment
- It is present across the UK and people don’t know about it
The solution
- Action on Awareness
- Action on Guidelines
- Action on Research
We need government action to make this happen
We hear a constant stream of unsolicited complaints from the public that their doctors either admit to knowing very little about Lyme disease or rule out the diagnosis on spurious grounds. More effort must be made by health authorities to make doctors and the public aware of the basic facts of Lyme.
The HPA’s Lyme Borreliosis Unit currently recommends guidelines published by the Infectious Diseases Society of America. These guidelines have been widely criticised for failing to consider all the available evidence. We urgently need UK and European guidelines that take account of the full range of scientific evidence and medical opinion.
The bacteria responsible for Lyme disease are the most genetically complex known, by a long way. Recent research has only served to highlight how complex Lyme disease can be and there are too many unanswered questions.