Dr. Stricker repilies to “Doctor Disciplined over Lyme Disease Treatment”
Original article reprinted below.
To the Associated Press,
The story entitled "Doctor Disciplined over Lyme Disease Treatment" (4/14/06) has numerous inaccuracies. First, the title makes it sound like Dr. Jemsek has already been convicted of some crime. Nothing could be further from the truth, as the story finally acknowledges in the fourth paragraph. By then the casual reader has been totally misled.
The story quotes Dr. Paul Mead of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), who makes comments about the treatment of chronic Lyme disease. Dr. Mead is a research epidemiologist at the CDC. He is not involved in direct patient care, and he has no expertise in the clinical management of patients with chronic Lyme disease. His comments are irrelevant to the thousands of patients suffering from chronic Lyme disease, and his uninformed clinical views are irrelevant to Dr. Jemsek's case.
The story also quotes Dr. Eugene Shapiro, a pediatric researcher from Yale University who helped formulate the now-obsolete Lyme guidelines of the Infectious Diseases Society of America. Dr, Shapiro makes another one of his nihilistic comments for which he is notorious:
"It's not that the people diagnosed with chronic Lyme disease don't have problems," he said. "It's that chronic Lyme disease is not the problem."
Over the past decade, it has become obvious that a major problem for people with chronic Lyme disease is Dr. Shapiro himself, who has used his stature as a university professor to spread misinformation about Lyme disease around the country. Sadly there are gullible reporters who blindly print his dismissive statements while ignoring the immense problems with chronic Lyme disease, which confers disability similar to congestive heart failure. Dr. Jemsek is trying to solve those problems. Dr. Shapiro is making them worse.
A story like this one should have included comments from more enlightened physician groups such as the International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society (ILADS, www.ilads.org) and from patient advocacy groups such as the national Lyme Disease Association (LDA, www.lymediseaseassociation.org). Let's hope that the Associated Press does a better job next time.
Sincerely,
Raphael Stricker, MD
President, ILADS
PO Box 341461
Bethesda, MD 20827
Original article: “Doctor Disciplined over Lyme Disease Treatment”
Dr. Disciplined Over Lyme Disease Treatments
(04/14/06 — Huntersville) — Nearly a quarter-century ago, Dr. Joseph Jemsek was the first physician in the Charlotte area to diagnose a patient with AIDS.He became known for devotion to patients often marginalized because of the illness's association with homosexuality and drug use. Today, the 56-year-old Jemsek is known for treating patients he believes suffer from chronic Lyme disease, a form of the illness the medical establishment doesn't believe exists. When given the standard blood test for Lyme disease, many of his patients test negative.
The dispute could cost Jemsek his license to practice. In December, the North Carolina Medical Board charged him with improperly diagnosing Lyme disease and treating it via long-term courses of intravenous antibiotics, which violates the care standard set by the Infectious Diseases Society of America, or IDSA. The state board will hear the case in June.
"That would be one of the greatest injustices in the history of the state," Jemsek said. "I don't shoot drugs — I just prescribe too much tetracycline."
It's not just tetracycline that's gotten Jemsek in trouble, but a whole array of antibiotics, administered in varying doses, combinations and schedules, both orally and intravenously. His patients say the treatment is the only thing that provides relief of their joint pain, fevers, headaches and mental confusion — a series of symptoms they say other doctors struggle to diagnosis and treat.
But many say Jemsek is on a dangerous path. "There's not a great deal of published evidence that supports prolonged antibiotic treatment," said Dr. Paul Mead, based in Fort Collins, Colo., and the leading Lyme expert for the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "There is, however, evidence that these treatments can be harmful."
Doctors who diagnose patients with Lyme disease without solid evidence risk missing a correct diagnosis, said Dr. Eugene Shapiro, a pediatrics professor at the Yale University School of Medicine who helped draft the treatment guidelines Jemsek is accused of violating. Long-term antibiotic treatment also carries risk of infection with resistant bacteria and fungi, high costs and encourages the development of antibiotic-resistant "superbugs" that endanger the entire population.
"It's not that the people diagnosed with chronic Lyme disease don't have problems," he said. "It's that chronic Lyme disease is not the problem."