Blog Phase 7

For my final entry I chose to do a chapter out of the book called The Lyme Disease Solution by Kenneth B. Singleton.  He is an M.D. and a M.P.H.  This book was published by BookSurge Publishing in 2008, so it is fairly recent.  I think this is a very credible book due to the fact that it is written by a doctor who is familiar with Lyme and has spent many hours studying it.  Singleton graduated at the top of his class from Howard University College of Medicine.  He is an active member of the Infectious Disease Society of America and has advocated strongly for Lyme Disease treatment on TV and radio programs.  He is very knowledgeable about this topic.

Essentially this section of the book talks and informs the reader on the current medical controversies of Lyme.  It talks about the different reasons as to why doctors refuse to test patients unless they have a rash.  I did not know this reason.  The Infectious Disease Society of America recently issued guidelines to health care professionals in an attempt to help patients with Lyme.  However, these guidelines include only testing a person if they have a bulls-eye rash, but statistics say that more then one half of the people who have Lyme never get the rash.  So I don't understand how this guideline would help! Another one of the guidelines put in place is the rule that if there is a rash present one must undergo one test.  This test is a test that is usually wrong and also only tests for Lyme but leaves out all of the other bacterias that could be in their body.  This article is very helpful in helping me understand the full controversy going on. 

I think this source raises a lot of interesting thoughts in my head that I never knew before.  For example, I never knew what the guidelines were in order for one to be tested.  I never knew that they came from the Infectious Disease society either.  It just confuses me why they put this guideline in place when over half of the people never get rashes.  This whole topic just fires me up and makes me want to make a difference and change something.  

In this section there are countless stories of people who had all the symptoms that the IDSA required for treatment but yet still went undiagnosed.  The one lady went undiagnosed for so long that it began to infest into her brain and began to look like the early stages of Alzheimer's.  So why wasn't this lady tested and treated? Because Doctors refused to admit that it could be Lyme.  I want to know why doctors cant just put that on their list to check with people instead of refusing to acknowledge that it is on the rise.  


Singleton, Kenneth B. "Chapter 1: The Medical Controversy Surrounding Lyme Disease." The Lyme     Disease Solution. Charleston, SC: urge, 2008. 15-24. Print.