A special Review Panel has unanimously agreed that no changes need be made to the 2006 Lyme disease treatment guidelines developed by the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA), the nation’s pre-eminent authority on infectious diseases. These guidelines promote a short-term course of antibiotics for the treatment of Lyme disease.
IDSA’s guidelines, voluntarily used by physicians to help them decide what treatments are best and safest for patients, were the subject of an antitrust investigation about whether the guidelines’ authors had conflicts of interest and failed to consider divergent medical opinions. IDSA maintains those assertions were unfounded and voluntarily agreed to a one-time special review of the guidelines by an independent scientific Review Panel whose members were certified to be free from any conflicts of interest by an independent ombudsman.
The review panel concurred that IDSA’s guidelines, which stated that long-term antibiotic treatment is unwarranted and potentially dangerous, are medically and scientifically valid and do not need to be changed. The full report is available here.
Follow these links for more information on Lyme disease in Maine and recently signed legislation to expand Lyme disease awareness in Maine.
