Legislators enter Lyme disease treatment debate
Bill would allow doctors to prescribe long-term antibiotics
The Advocate Staff
Posted: 02/08/2009 07:02:25 PM EST
By Brian Lockhart
Staff Writer
HARTFORD - State Rep. Kimberly Fawcett has proposed a bill that puts
Connecticut in the middle of a nationwide dispute over whether Lyme
disease can be chronic.
The Fairfield Democrat joined the fray after her husband was diagnosed
with the tick-borne disease last summer. He was prescribed the
standard three-week course of antibiotics but relapsed soon after he
completed the treatment.
"Within a week, he was violently sick again," Fawcett said.
When the couple sought additional treatment from her husband's
primary-care physician, they were told to find another doctor or a
specialist, she said.
Doctors "feel like it's something they want to avoid getting involved
with if they can," Fawcett said.
The reason is that some in the medical profession question whether
Lyme disease can persist, and whether it merits long-term antibiotic
treatment, which carries potential dangers.
Fawcett proposed a law that makes it clear physicians have the right
to prescribe long-term antibiotics for Lyme disease, which she thinks
many would do if they did not fear being reported to the state
Department of Public Health.
Her bill, co-sponsored by state Rep. William Tong, D-Stamford, was the
subject of a public hearing Friday by the legislature' s Committee on
Public Health.
READ the rest at
http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/localnews/ci_11658937
(B/c I continue to be illiterate at this whole tech thing - I do not now how to set this link up as a hyperlink for you, so you may have to copy/paste it to your browser - so sorry - looking for a good trainer!)
The tide is turning!
If this bill goes through, it establishes a precedence!
Blessings,
Sojourner
Post Edited (sojourner) : 2/10/2009 10:34:55 AM (GMT-7)