In the fullness of time, the mainstream handling of chronic Lyme disease will be viewed as one of the most shameful episodes in the history of medicine because elements of academic medicine, elements of government and virtually the entire insurance industry have colluded to deny a disease.
This has resulted in needless suffering of many individuals who deteriorate and sometimes die for lack of timely application of treatment or denial of treatment beyond some arbitrary duration.
Honest review of the worldwide peer-reviewed scientific literature reveals an abundance of evidence for the existence of chronic Lyme disease in humans and animals.
The standard of care set by the IDSA 2006 Lyme disease guidelines is one of medical neglect of persons suffering from chronic Lyme disease.However, such guidelines are indeed useful. They serve to shield from liability physicians who neglect persons with chronic Lyme disease. By misusing CDC case surveillance criteria as the sole basis for a clinical diagnosis of Lyme disease, these guidelines serve the insurance industry very well indeed because such cases represent but the tip of the iceberg of actual cases of Lyme disease, whether acute or chronic.
