Lyme Disease - an Urgent Appeal for Reform

BACKGROUND The Lyme Disease Treatment Guidelines, authored by the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA), are currently undergoing review. While there are multiple perspectives regarding the best treatment protocols for Lyme disease, and two professional medical societies that specialize in the diagnosis and treatment of Lyme disease, the CDC and the nation's insurance companies have historically selected the guidelines authored by the IDSA to be the sole voice for treatment advice for this highly complex and insufficiently understood illness. This has laid the groundwork for a lack of adequate treatment for hundreds of thousands of Lyme disease patients who have endured, and will continue to endure serious, persistent illness.