A bill in the state House would endorse long-term antibiotic treatment for Lyme disease sufferers and calls on the state to ramp up education on the disease.
In 2005, the Pennsylvania Medical Society (PAMED) House of Delegates passed a resolution to oppose any legislation that attempts to define an acceptable standard of treatment for a specific disease.
PAMED cannot offer its support to treatments, such as the long-term antibiotic treatment of Lyme disease, that have not been endorsed by the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the
National Institutes of Health, or the
Infectious Disease Society of America.
“Unfortunately, research on this type of treatment is not proven and the overwhelming consensus of the medical community does not agree with it,” said John Goldman, MD, in his
testimony to the House of Representatives Human Services Committee on Aug. 30, 2011.
“Ironically, more and more physicians are significantly curbing the unnecessary use of antibiotics given the serious and growing problem of antimicrobial resistance.”
PAMED does support a component of the bill that would increase education on the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of Lyme disease with the assistance of health care provider professional associations, such as PAMED.
House Bill 272 also calls for creation of a task force to investigate and make recommendations on the prevention of Lyme disease, raising awareness about the long-term effects of its misdiagnosis, and the development of a program to inform and educate the public about the disease. Though PAMED supports the creation of such a task force, it has concerns with its proposed composition.
“Let’s not put a wedge between patients and physicians through legislation encouraging medical procedures that are scientifically unproven,” concluded Dr. Goldman. “Physicians need to act in the best interest of their patients without this kind of statutory guidance.”