Approaching Lyme Disease in Children

Bravo, I laughed at your response. You actually have a sense of humour which I did not detect from your other 237 posts about Lyme disease. I include the following for those who are interested. Please note that I am in no way denigrating those who have contracted Lyme and my sympathy goes out to our fellow health sufferers.

Cheers,
Basso

The overdiagnosis of Lyme disease in children residing in an endemic area.
AUTHORS:
Rose CD; Fawcett PT; Gibney KM; Doughty RA
AUTHOR AFFILIATION:
Division of Rheumatology, Alfred I. duPont Institute, Wilmington, Delaware 19899.
SOURCE:
Clin Pediatr (Phila) 1994 Nov;33(11):663-8
"Children residing in an endemic area who present with vague symptoms are being diagnosed with and treated for Lyme disease without clinical or serologic documentation. In addition, fear in the lay community may be inducing doctors to diagnose Lyme disease in patients with symptoms that may be suggestive of an alternative diagnosis."
TITLE:
Lyme disease: a growing threat to urban populations.
AUTHORS:
Steere AC
AUTHOR AFFILIATION:
Division of Rheumatology/Immunology, Tufts University School of Medicine, New England Medical Center, Boston, MA 02111.
SOURCE:
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 1994 Mar 29;91(7):2378-83
"A recent phenomenon is that a number of poorly understood conditions, such as chronic fatigue syndrome or fibromyalgia, are misdiagnosed as "chronic Lyme disease.""
TITLE:
The overdiagnosis of Lyme disease [see comments]
AUTHORS:
Steere AC; Swift_TaySwift20 E; McHugh GL; Logigian EL
AUTHOR AFFILIATION:
Division of Rheumatology/Immunology, New England Medical Center, Boston, MA 02111.
SOURCE:
JAMA 1993 Apr 14;269(14):1812-6
COMMENT:
Comment in: JAMA 1993 Dec 8;270(22):2682; discussion 2683
Comment in: JAMA 1993 Dec 8;270(22):2682-3
Comment in: JAMA 1993 Dec 8;270(22):2683
"Of the patients who did not have Lyme disease, 45% had had positive serological test results for Lyme disease in other laboratories, but all were seronegative in our laboratory. Prior to referral, 409 of the 788 patients had been treated with antibiotic therapy. In 322 (79%) of these patients, the reason for lack of response was incorrect diagnosis. CONCLUSIONS--Only a minority of the patients referred to the clinic met diagnostic criteria for Lyme disease. The most common reason for lack of response to antibiotic therapy was misdiagnosis."
TITLE:
Lyme disease. Difficulties in diagnosis and management [published erratum appears in Pediatr Clin North Am 1991 Oct;38(5):viii]
AUTHORS:
Ostrov BE; Athreya BH
AUTHOR AFFILIATION:
Department of Pediatrics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.
SOURCE:
Pediatr Clin North Am 1991 Jun;38(3):535-53
"Most disease manifestations are not specific to this illness. In addition, in endemic areas, almost 100% of the tick vector, the Ixodes species, are infected and the incidence rate of LB is as high as 1%. Because of these factors, the illness is overdiagnosed and overtreated."

An outstanding literature search! I think this puts the whole "Lyme disease" thing in perspective. Maybe Eric would like to incorporate it in his signature?

David

there are seven thousand known kids in the state of connecticut who have lyme disease!if you read the literature out there by pier groups then you are getting a story crafted by the insurence agency,the reality here and the reason why post so much is because even when i presented with severe problems they would not diagnose lyme disease even knowing that i had it,they dont know and dont want to know about lyme because if they treat you they may get there practice taken away.. that is the truth and you must understand that.
if you ask why then the answer is this, the big companys all stand together and tell the doctors what they will pay for and if need treatment they will only give you one month, that will never work but that is what they do..to treat lyme it costs in the 100 of thousands of dollars and they dont want to pay. better you get worse and die so they dont have to spend the money..now this is the truth and in my last posts i was not feeling well and every day i get a little bit better..I took my health in my own hands and I am here today,.
I am not saying that everyone on this board have lyme but some do..keep an open mind about all this and if you have ruled it out so be it but just remeber that the tests around the world are not sensitive at all, here in california igenex has the deep test to uncover infection... that is why no one tests postive.
anyway from now on I am going to ask that when the group talks to a newbie that they are informed of lyme and made to be aware of it..

have a good weekend
eric

by the way my son got lyme disease and guess what he was never exposed, explain that, dont read literature that is made to change peoples mind from the insurence company, there are doctors out there trying to destroy the credability of lyme disease diagnosis for the insurence companys and has been fired from the national institutes of health, he goes under the guise of "QUACKERY" . just type that in and see what you come up with..
eric