Lyme Disease Controversial Therapy

Some Lyme disease patients now turning to controversial antibiotics therapy.
The Minneapolis Star Tribune (4/12, Lerner) reports that some patients with Lyme disease are now turning "to a highly controversial therapy: more than a year's worth of antibiotics," instead of the usual treatment of 10 to 28 days, a practice that some medical experts say is "a reckless, unproven, and potentially dangerous approach." Undeterred by guidelines issued in 2006 by the Infectious Diseases Society of America, "Lyme disease activists...are speaking out in courtrooms, state legislatures, and even a new documentary, 'Under Our Skin,' to argue that the experts are wrong." For example, in Minnesota last month, Lyme activists "pressured the state Board of Medicine to forgo...the ability to discipline doctors for using the unproven treatment" for the next five years.