"Sezon na kleszcza"

    • artur737 Ugryziony prawnik 26.11.06, 23:13
      Historia upadku pewnego znanego amerykanskiego prawnika do czego walnie
      przyczynila sie nieleczona borelioza

      Tick-ed off lawyer

      Lost it to Lyme, say friends

      BY RICH SCHAPIRO
      DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

      The crooked Westchester lawyer whose wife was killed in a roadside shooting was
      a brilliant defense attorney renowned for his stirring closing arguments until
      he contracted Lyme disease in upstate New York - causing him and his career to
      unravel, his former colleagues told the Daily News.

      The Puerto Rican courtrooms where Carlos Perez-Olivo won case after case in the
      1970s were often packed with legal experts and students eager to watch the
      trailblazing lawyer's masterful performances.

      "He was a legend down here," said Boabdil Vazquetelles, a retired court
      reporter from San Juan. "He was awesome in his closing arguments."

      But when Perez-Olivo returned to the Caribbean island after a stint in New
      York, he was sluggish and forgetful.

      He eventually confided in his friends that he was suffering from Lyme disease,
      a debilitating condition caused by the bite of an infected tick that causes
      persistent fevers, headaches and fatigue.

      "Sometimes in the middle of the day, he didn't even know what he was doing or
      where he was," Vazquetelles said.

      Perez-Olivo's reputation began to decline shortly after he returned to Puerto
      Rico in the late 1990s. He told colleagues that he was constantly battling flu-
      like symptoms that often made him lose his train of thought.

      "He became lethargic ... and I know his practice suffered," said Herbert Brown,
      a 60-year-old lawyer in San Juan.

      Perez-Olivo's career was severely damaged in 2002 when he was barred from
      practicing law after he was found to have mishandled a $25,000 payment from a
      client.

      After moving back to New York, he only encountered more problems. He was
      accused of incompetence in a high-profile murder case last year, and was
      disbarred in August for stealing from a client.

      "He wanted to keep his family living that certain lifestyle," Vazquetelles
      said. "I guess that's the only way he knew how to do it."

      As bad as things were professionally for the former courtroom giant, his
      private life remained stable. He enjoyed a comfortable life with his wife in
      Chappaqua, living in a mansion just three doors from Bill and Hillary Clinton's
      home.

      But his personal life crumbled last Saturday night when, he told cops, he and
      his wife, Peggy Perez-Olivo, 55, were ambushed in a roadside shooting.

      Carlos Perez-Olivo, 58, has told investigators that he was driving home from
      New York City with his wife when their sport-utility vehicle was cut off by a
      dark car resembling a Toyota Camry on a desolate road just a few miles from
      their home.

      The disgraced lawyer said a Hispanic man jumped into the couple's backseat and
      shot his wife in the head before putting a bullet in his abdomen.

      Bleeding from his stomach, Perez-Olivo called 911 and then drove his mortally
      wounded wife to Northern Westchester Hospital in Mount Kisco, where she died
      two days later.

      Perez-Olivo has not been charged with a crime or accused of any wrongdoing,
      though police say his account of his wife's murder is "unusual-sounding."

      No arrests have been made.

      His friends and colleagues in Puerto Rico were stunned by the news of his
      wife's mysterious murder - and dismissed the possibility that her husband was
      behind the shooting.

      "Peggy was a wonderful woman," said Robert Odasz, 52, who tried several cases
      with her husband in Puerto Rico. "It is ludicrous to think he would ever hurt
      his wife or his family. He's not that type of person."

      Originally published on November 26, 2006
    • artur737 Preludium do protestu 30 listopada 28.11.06, 22:45
      Zapowiedz protestu w prasie"

      www.newstimeslive.com/news/story.php?id=1023559

      Nov 28 2006 6:39 AM

      Lyme disease activists to protest
      By Robert Miller

      THE NEWS-TIMES

      Area Lyme disease activists, dismayed by recently released treatment guidelines for the illness, will go public with their protest Thursday, rallying at Westchester Medical Center/New York Medical College in Valhalla, N.Y., where the lead author of the guidelines works.

      "They're highly restrictive,'' said Dr. Steven Phillips, a Ridgefield physician who is the former president of the International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society. "I just cannot understand why they've chosen to ignore all the data on this.''

      "They were worse than we expected,'' said Maggie Shaw of the Newtown Lyme Disease Task Force.

      "In a word, I think they're a disgrace,'' said Dr. Raphael Stricker of San Francisco, who is the current president of ILADS. "They're not relying on best science. They're relying on their opinion.''

      The guidelines are so controversial that Attorney General Richard Blumenthal has intervened. His office is now investigating whether the group that wrote the guidelines, the Infectious Diseases Society of America, is a monopolistic organization trying to shape treatment of the tick-borne disease without allowing other treatment options to emerge.

      "It's a medical issue but also a patient issue,'' Blumenthal said. "Their guidelines limit very severely the types of diagnosis and treatment available to patients. In a way, that's anti-competitive.''

      The national guidelines issued by the Infectious Diseases Society of America recommend that doctors give patients with Lyme disease 10 to 28 days of oral antibiotics to treat the disease, with another month allowed for persistent symptoms.

      But the guidelines
      • artur737 Re: Preludium do protestu 30 listopada 28.11.06, 22:46


        "This is the best science has to offer,'' she said.

        Olson said the society could not take into account things like patients' anecdotal accounts of their Lyme disease treatment in writing the guidelines. Nor, she said, did it concern itself with whether insurance companies would pay for treatment outside those guidelines.

        She also said that guidelines are just that, and that patients and doctors are free to find different treatments that work best for them.

        She also said the society is cooperating fully with Blumenthal's office.

        "In our experience, we've never heard of this kind of investigation,'' she said. "But we stand behind our methods and our recommendations.''

        But Lyme activists and doctors who support a more liberal approach to treating the disease said the new guidelines are highly restrictive, not allowing doctors any latitude in treatment.

        Perhaps the most contentious point is whether chronic Lyme disease even exists.

        Many Lyme patients and their doctors contend the standard treatment for Lyme disease sometimes fails, or never gets administered to begin with.

        When that happens, they say, the bacterial spirochete that causes the disease can re-emerge in the body, causing a bewildering array of symptoms
    • artur737 Lyme Disease Expert Critical of Guidlines 29.11.06, 04:17
      www.theopenpress.com/index.php?a=press&id=14472
      Lyme Wars: Lyme Disease Expert Critical of New Treatment Guidelines

      Mount Kisco, NY (OPENPRESS) November 28, 2006
      • artur737 Re: Lyme Disease Expert Critical of Guidlines 29.11.06, 04:17
        Earlier guidelines and the CDC stated that Lyme disease is a “clinical diagnosis,” supported by lab testing. The new IDSA guidelines do an about face.

        Cameron reminds his colleagues, “There is no test to measure the disease infecting a patient, only a measure of antibody response which can be compromised by the action of the bacteria itself.”

        Cameron has just published a paper refuting assumptions by one of the quoted references in the IDSA guidelines, and has had another Lyme-related study accepted and about to be published by another peer-reviewed journal.
        .
        In "Generalizability in two clinical trials of Lyme disease" in the current issue of Epidemiologic Perspectives & Innnovations. Cameron’s “Analytic Perspective” takes aim at a commonly-cited study on long-course treatment of patients with Lyme disease.

        Simply known as “Klempner, et al. trials,” published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2001, this small study has been generalized in medical literature and certainly by insurance companies to be the be-all proof that 12 weeks of antibiotics for sick patients does not help.


        Cameron pulls apart the science of the study, and makes it clear that the study is not useful when dealing with a broader population.

        His concern, like that of many of his colleagues, is that Guidelines published by America’s large professional organizations are often seen by the medical community at large, by insurers and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), as the final word on treatment. And the wording in this one leaves very little room for the clinical diagnosis of the disease.

        “The IDSA guidelines do not offer an answer for the thousands of individuals with Lyme disease left with a poor quality of life after their 21 to 30 days of treatment,” says Cameron.

        “How can we, as scientists and physicians, turn our backs on all the things we do not yet know about this complex emerging disease and its long-term affects on individuals and our communities?”

        Even if the blood tests were 100 percent accurate they cannot be performed on a patient for four to six weeks after onset – which may cause a treatment delay and its possible consequences.


        That is another issue tackled in Cameron’s work. His next article to be published has been accepted by the Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice. "Consequences of Treatment Delay in Lyme Disease," a research letter, discusses “the poor outcome after treatment delay (of 4 wks to 8 yrs in his study group) supports the hypothesis that treatment delay is a major risk factor for developing chronic Lyme disease.”

        Again, this study flies in the face of the IDSA guidelines.

        Lyme Disease is America’s most common and fastest growing vector-borne disease. The spiral-shaped bacteria, Borrelia burgdorferi (Bb), which causes Lyme Disease, can be spread by the bite of ticks carried by birds, deer, house pets and rodents.

        It can be transmitted through human blood and from mother to child in utero. According to the CDC, “Typical symptoms include fever, headache, fatigue, and a characteristic skin rash called erythema migrans.

        If left untreated, infection can spread to joints, the heart, and the nervous system. Lyme disease is diagnosed based on symptoms, physical findings (e.g., rash), and the possibility of exposure to infected ticks; laboratory testing is helpful in the later stages of disease.” (cdc.gov)

        (It should be noted that human granulocytic anaplasmosis (HGA) was formerly known as human granulocytic ehrlichiosis (HGE) or its common name, ehrlichiosis.)

        Dr. Cameron is a member of the IDSA and ILADS, and is an attending physician at Northern Westchester Hospital, Mount Kisco, NY.

        For more information on Daniel Cameron, MD, please go to www.Lymeproject.com
        Media contact: media@wallapix.com 914-238-7197

        ###
        Professional Free Press Release News Wire
    • artur737 AG Takes on MDs Over Lyme Disease 29.11.06, 04:23
      www.conntact.com/article_page.lasso?id=40479
      AG Takes on MDs Over Lyme Disease

      Blumenthal subpoenas national doctors group over treatment guidelines

      Business New Haven
      11/27/2006

      by Liese Klein
      In an unprecedented move, the state attorney general has waded into the controversy surrounding the diagnosis and treatment of Lyme disease by launching an antitrust probe into the practices of a national doctors' group.

      Attorney General Richard Blumenthal announced on November 16 that he had issued a subpoena to the Virginia-based Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) over its recently issued Lyme disease guidelines.

      The organization, which represents 8,000 disease specialists, says Lyme disease can be diagnosed from a discrete set of symptoms and recommends treatment with a limited course of antibiotics.

      "These guidelines may have a serious anticompetitive effect, insofar as they prevent competing forms of diagnosis and treatment," Blumenthal says.

      The IDSA was singled out because it convened a panel without representatives from the "Lyme-literate" community, which advocates a much broader definition of Lyme and long-term, intravenous antibiotic treatment for ailment. The IDSA has countered that long-term antibiotic treatment can be harmful and breed resistant "superbug" bacteria.

      The IDSA guidelines will discourage doctors from using alternate diagnoses and treatment, Blumenthal says, adding, "That possibility has profound and important implications for insurance coverage."

      The IDSA has not received any kind of subpoena in recent memory but is "cooperating fully," says spokesperson Diana Olson.

      "We stand behind the method we've used to develop those guidelines," Olson says. "They are based on science - they represent what our experts believe are the best that science has to offer."

      "Our guidelines are voluntary," Olsen adds. "No guidelines can be a substitute for a clinician's judgment."

      Blumenthal's move drew kudos from activists who want a broader definition and more wide-ranging treatment of the ailment, which was named for the town of Lyme.

      In a related matter, on November 16 the state's Medical Examining Board met to hear the case of New Haven pediatrician Charles Ray Jones, who may lose his license for prescribing antibiotics to treat Lyme for two children he hadn't examined.

      The board will meet again next month to consider Jones' case, says Bill Garrish, spokesman for the state's Department of Public Heath.

      Jones' case has attracted nationwide media coverage and Lyme activists have started a legal defense fund for the doctor.
    • borelka1 Z wykształcenia-dziennikarka! I tytuł! 29.11.06, 12:46
      Hej Nadia! Też wpadłam na ten sam pomysł. Stąd mój post do Ministerstwa Zdrowia
      dotyczący boreliozy. Może chociaż jakieś plakaty w przychodniach? Ludzie nic o
      tym nie wiedzą, to ja szerzę informacje w Trójmieście, od ust do ust. Prawie
      każdy był przez coś dziabnięty. Ale rzadko kto wie co może mu grozić!

      Jeden z moich zawodów- specjalista ds.dziennikarstwa. Może czas go uaktywnić?
      Dzisiaj wstałam z ta myślą, żeby zadziałać gdzieś dalej. No i zadziałałam! A
      niech i Minister też wie! Co się sami mamy męczyć?!

      Myślałam nad tytułem. Najlepszy byłby "www.borelioza.wielokropek". Dlaczego? Bo
      wiedza dostępna na temat choroby to głównie internet. Wielokropek? bo dalej
      nikt nic nie wie!Np ja! Im więcej czytam tym większy mętlik mam w głowie! A
      nieodparta potrzeba ratowania świata nakazała mi działać! smile))))

      Moje choróbsko:
      -11 lat temu ugryzł mnie kleszcz. Miałam rumień, byłam w 3 miesiącu ciąży.
      Lekarz nie wiedział co mi jest, dał jakiś łagodny antybiotyk.
      -przez kolejne 10 lat dziwaczne drgawki neurologiczne z drętwieniej jednej
      strony ciała, odział neurologii z powodu silnej migreny, napady depresyjne,
      nerwowość, rozdrażnienie, ogólnie huśtawki.Do tego nasilające się bóle
      kręgosłupa, potem stawów, ograniczenie ich ruchomości. Zawroty głowy, problemy
      z chorobą lokomocyjną, notoryczne zakażenia układu moczowego, problemy z
      żołądkiem ,wątrobą, kołatania serca, duszności,pogarszająca się zdolność
      koncentracji, ogólne roztrzepanie i zapominalstwo.
      -rok temu silny atak. Stan zapalny stawów, temp.powyżej 37, zmęczenie,
      otępienie, silna depresja.Na depresję tez mnie leczyli, ale mało pomagało więc
      dałam sobie spokój. wiedziałam, że to coś innego, więc wariata z siebie zrobić
      nie dałam.
      Byłam przez cały luty leczona Duomoxem. Pomogło. Ale w czerwcu znowu gorączka
      utrzymująca się kolejne 2 miesiące. Nienawidziłam termometra. Ups! Sam się
      potłukł!
      Potem operacja. Dzięki lekom pooperacyjnym miesiąc spokoju. I koniec
      października znowu silny atak. Totalne unieruchomienie! Zmęczenie, trudności ze
      wstaniem z łóżka.Bóle stawów, kręgosłupa, depresja.

      Od miesiąca znowu Duomox- diagnoza: borelioza!
      Brałam 3x1g. Po konsultacji z lekarzem zmniejszyliśmy do 3x0,5g (powód:
      ześwirowanie ze sprawami kobiecymi!Wszystkie szczotki do czyszczenia butelek
      zużyte!). Tydzień po zmniejszeniu dawki powrót wszystkich objawów! Od wczoraj
      dawka zwiększona jak wcześniej.Muszę kupić nowe szczotki!
      Najbardziej dotkliwy objaw: ogólne wkurzenie na brak poprawy!
      Idę kogoś zagryźć!
      • artur737 Re: Z wykształcenia-dziennikarka! I tytuł! 29.11.06, 16:05
        > Jeden z moich zawodów- specjalista ds.dziennikarstwa. Może czas go uaktywnić?

        Moze czas go uaktywnic. Po to zamieszczam te rozne artykuly z prasy zachodniej by w koncu kogos natchnac. Sam pisac nie moge bo za malo znam polskie realia po dlugiej emigracji. Poniewaz jestes wzlednie krotko na forum to sugeruje by ktos spojrzal na efekty twojego pisarstwa zanim zostanie opublikowane by wszystko bylo poprawnie.
    • artur737 Re: "Sezon na kleszcza" 29.11.06, 18:36
      Kolejny artykul przed protestem o protescie

      stardem.com/article.asp?article=22191&paper=1&cat=1

      Lyme disease patients to protest new guidelines
      Local bus chartered for rally in Valhalla, N.Y.
      By STEVE NERY
      Staff Writer
      November 26, 2006



      EASTON — Some Eastern Shore Lyme disease patients are joining their peers across state lines in taking their protest of the Infectious Diseases Society of America’s new treatment and diagnostic guidelines straight to the authors of the document.

      The Infectious Disease Society of America’s (IDSA) new guidelines were published online in October after being approved in late August. Many Lyme advocates believed the previous guidelines were too strict and outdated, and are extremely upset with the new set.

      Lyme patients will stage the protest at Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla, N.Y., at noon Thursday, Nov. 30. Lead author Dr. Gary Wormser works at the facility.

      Local groups have chartered a bus, which will stop in Easton, Centreville, Elkton and Claymont, Del., en route to New York. The cost is expected to be about $35 a person. More information is available at www.lymenews.org.

      While erythema migrans, or the “bullseye rash” that appears on some patients, is enough for a clinical diagnosis, according to the new IDSA guidelines, nothing else is. The IDSA recommends blood testing, which has been found unreliable by many studies, while the Centers for Disease Control had been recommending clinical diagnosis.

      Lyme disease is caused by the bacteria Borrelia burgdorferi, transmitted through tick bites. Less than half of all infected people recall the tick bite, according to the International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society (ILADS), and more than half never develop the bullseye rash.

      Pat Smith, president of the Lyme Disease Association, condemned the new guidelines in an e-mail.

      “With Lyme disease cases consistently on the rise nationwide and ticks moving into new habitats often close to human populations, I cannot fathom why patients are being subject to guidelines which say their disease does not exist, which say treatment is not recommended for them, and which say clinical discretion should be in effect removed from their treating doctors,” she wrote.

      “Something is terribly wrong with this picture, and a prompt solution must be found before these patients become more seriously debilitated by chronic Lyme disease.”

      Lucy Barnes, director of the Lyme Disease Education and Support Groups of Maryland, said the guidelines focus too much on cost-effectiveness rather than quality of care and that the IDSA wields too much influence over health care.

      “This organization is effectively denying medical care to seriously ill patients,” she said. “We think this is irresponsible and immoral.”

      Apart from the protest, Lyme groups and patients are also encouraged by the actions of the Connecticut State Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, who has launched an investigation into how the IDSA developed the guidelines. Blumenthal’s office filed a civil investigative demand to look into possible anti-trust violations by the IDSA in connection with exclusionary conduct and monopolization.

      “We support the Connecticut Attorney General’s actions 100 percent,” said Linda C. Reilly, president of the Mid-Shore Lyme Disease Association.
    • artur737 Re: "Sezon na kleszcza" 02.12.06, 19:40
      www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/bal-ed.lyme30nov30,0,5772970.story?coll=bal-opinion-headlines
      Missing the mark

      Originally published November 30, 2006
      Baltimore Sun

      Lyme patients - many of them afflicted with debilitating ailments that began with the bite of a tiny tick - have traveled from Maryland and a dozen other states to a medical center in Valhalla, N.Y., where today they will demand that the Infectious Diseases Society of America retract medical treatment guidelines it released last month. Lyme disease sufferers experience headaches, fatigue, chills, fever and, in advanced cases, heart and nervous system problems. The last thing they needed was to have their pains burdened additionally by a segment of the medical community that by recommending against long-term antibiotic use essentially threatens to reduce the quality of care they receive.

      Maryland averages about 17 reported cases of Lyme disease per 1,000 residents, ranking it seventh in the country. Most of the cases can be found on the Eastern Shore, where not only are infected ticks plentiful, but Lyme disease education is promoted aggressively by volunteer health-service activists who also happen to be Lyme patients.

      The illness is easily misdiagnosed and frequently undertreated. Lyme patients have no shortage of horror stories about how their early symptoms were casually dismissed as arthritis, a lack of sleep and proper diet or, even worse, an emotional disorder, before they found a sympathetic physician who finally pinpointed the problem and prescribed antibiotics. In too many cases, the prognosis came late and the patient had to accept living with the disease.

      The most contentious piece of the new IDSA guidelines is a claim that long-term use of antibiotics is not a remedy and that they should not be prescribed beyond initial preventive doses. Lyme patients and their doctors are understandably shocked by this assertion. Their own experiences tell them differently. And though adherence to the guidelines is voluntary, the implications are that insurance companies and HMOs will refuse to pay for further antibiotic treatment and that doctors, even against their better judgment, will stop prescribing for fear of being brought up before medical boards.

      Maryland's Lyme-literate physicians and their patients would have had some protection against the IDSA guidelines had a prescient bill addressing this issue made it through the state legislature in 2005. By the time the bill came up for a final vote, it was so watered down in favor of the insurance industry that even its original backers sanctioned its demise.

      On the matter of helping Lyme patients cope with the disease, the IDSA - like the 2005 legislature - missed the mark by a mile.
    • artur737 Lyme Disease Patients Denied Treatment 02.12.06, 19:48
      www.prweb.com/releases/2006/11/prweb484859.htm

      Lyme Disease Patients Denied Treatment Following New 2006 IDSA Guidelines: Connecticut Attorney General Launches Anti-Trust Investigation
      Press Release Newswire

      Connecticut State Attorney General, Richard Blumenthal, files a Civil Investigative Demand (CID) in an unprecedented move following the October 2006 release of the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) Lyme Disease Treatment Guidelines that are already being used to deny Lyme disease patient care.

      Under the new IDSA Guidelines, treatment is significantly more restrictive despite an extensive body of medical research that clearly documents persistent chronic Lyme disease and the benefits of long-term Lyme treatment.

      The new IDSA Guidelines are being used as the basis to deny medical care by physicians and deny insurance coverage for treatment.

      A Lyme Rights Protest against the new IDSA Guidelines is scheduled for Thursday November 30, 2006 from 12-3PM at Westchester Medical Center/New York Medical College.

      Ukiah, CA (PRWEB) November 29, 2006
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