Tenacious PT: #LYME2016 A Call To Action

#LYME2016 A Call To Action

The #LYME2016 "Call-to-Action" is for you to help us get our message all the way to Washington DC. We need The Senate to pass "The Lyme and Tick-borne Disease Prevention, Education and Research Act of 2015" (S. 1503). The House version of this Bill has already passed. The Bill sets up an Advisory Committee composed of Doctors, Scientists, Patients, as well as Patient Advocates. Lyme advocates have been trying to pass Legislation since 1998, and now we have less than a month to achieve this monumental goal. We hope we can count on your support. LymeDisease.org has created a "Voter Voice" link to their website which allows you to send your State Senator a direct message. (Link Here)

What the Lyme Community Needs:

Know The Facts About Lyme Disease:

We also encourage you to pick up the phone and speak with your Mayor, or any of your State or Local Elected Officials. We are finding most offices are unaware of the level of suffering caused by Lyme and Tick-borne Diseases. We encourage you to discuss any of the Facts below.

Last week The House of Representatives approved the budget for the CDC and the NIH. We need to make sure that the funds allocated for Lyme Disease are transparent and used for studies that will either find a test or find a cure. We would like the CDC to show the same effort they have with HIV/AIDS, Ebola, and most recently the Zika Virus. The CDC has proven it is capable of solving complex issues within a short period of time. Please let your elected official know that the current CDC guidelines recommend a 30-year-old test, and the use of 50-year-old antibiotics for Lyme Disease. We can do better. We must do better!

Our belief is that if we develop an accurate test for Lyme Disease all the controversy surrounding treatment will go away. For example, with TB you treat with antibiotics for 3, 6, 9 months or more, until the test comes back negative. This same logic needs to be applied to Lyme Disease. Currently, we do not have a test for Early Lyme, nor a test that is capable of detecting when a patient is cured. We are 100% convinced this is what we need.

As Dr. Neil Spector says, "Lyme Disease is not ONE disease." Lyme disease should be approached with the same principles we apply to curing Cancer, HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and other complex diseases. Let's make 2016 the year we find a cure.

Note: #LYME2016 is the brainchild of my friend Bob Sabatino, whom I met on twitter @helpfightlyme. What started out as one man's attempt to educate his local officials has turned into something with the potential to change the direction of Lyme Disease in 2016. Thanks Bob!