Politics and Medicine - And You Thought Politics and Religion Was Bad!

by Dawn Irons, Editor

Why do you suppose in this day and age of modern medicine and technology that a doctor would be threatened with his or her medical license for treating a disease that is somewhat controversial and highly political? Since when did controversy and politics define and mold the Hippocratic Oath: First, do no harm.

Lyme disease is a dire medical situation in this country that has become the political hot potato no one wants to touch. Dr. Nick Harris, president of IgeneX labs, a tick-borne pathogen laboratory in Palo Alto, California says that Lyme disease is the fastest growing infectious disease in the United States, second only to AIDS.

Lyme disease has been reported in all 50 states. It is not a “regional disease” isolated on the East Coast. It is a nation wide problem. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) believes that Lyme disease may be as high as 20 times more than the actual reported cases bringing the problem to pandemic proportions.

Part of the reporting problems with Lyme disease is that many doctors do not realize that cases of Lyme must be reported. A more troubling problem with the reporting of the disease is that the laboratory tests available to test for Lyme are highly inaccurate. For a blood test to be considered for screening purposes it must have a 95% sensitivity for accurately diagnosing the disease. The tests currently available for Lyme screening only have about a 50% sensitivity level. This problem is compounded by the very narrow reporting criteria set by the CDC.

All of these problems, when mixed together, create a disastrous recipe for a major public health crisis in the US. Knowing that we have a ticking time bomb on our hands, you would think physicians would be able to freely diagnose and treat this disease, which if not diagnosed very early has the potential to become a life threatening illness. Lyme, in its chronic form, goes systemic in the body affecting major organs and causing severe neurological damage.

So why would our doctors be penalized for treating such an illness? The answer is pure politics! There are two camps of people involved in the Lyme debate. The academic researchers make up the first camp. They study and theorize. The second camp is doctors that work hands-on, day in and day out, with Lyme patients. They know from first hand experience what is working and what is not. They are in the trenches, so to speak. This political controversy would be equivalent to a White House librarian telling a General in the combat field how to do his job.

The best we can hope for at this point, without legislative relief and protection is to hope that doctors will not be persecuted for allowing a patient to make an informed consent on treatment options. There are two standards of care.

A patient should have the right to choose which standard of care they want to follow, and insurance companies should pay for the standard of care the patient and doctor choose.