Business Insider: Lyme disease caused by ticks may cost $1.3 billion a year

[Antares in NYC]

Interesting article in Business Insider about the massive financial burden of the Lyme epidemic in the USA. While the article includes some of the usual misinformation (like PTLD, and really bad info on the Lymerix vaccine), the article minces no words to call this crisis a massive failure for the CDC and the IDSA, and their absolute failure in treating, researching and containing the spread of the illness.

The CDC now admits 300,000 new infections per year (of which 60,000 will become chronic), wrecking lives, careers, and costing us over $1 billion annually.

By all measures, their handling of Lyme has been a disaster. I think it's remarkable that a mainstream business publication is covering this mess, and paying attention to the legion of people left behind to suffer with no solution.

Business Insider: Lyme disease caused by ticks may cost $1.3 billion a year

Business Insider: A 'hidden epidemic' in the US has ballooned into a public-health fiasco

The US has an epidemic brewing within our borders, and the problem is much more serious than most people realize.

Lyme disease is spreading fast, and it only takes the bite of a poppy-seed-size tick to contract. Even after treatment, symptoms can be difficult to shake.

Those infected can develop severe, rheumatoid arthritis-like joint and muscle pain. Fatigue and neurological disorders — such as numbness, tingling, weakness, and cognitive impairment — can set in too.

Left untreated, infections can lead to brain inflammation or heart problems. At least a handful of such cases have proven fatal.

A recent study goes beyond human suffering inflicted by Lyme disease to estimate the monetary cost of this "hidden epidemic," as some call it. Researchers sifted through the health-insurance claims of 47 million people and discovered a staggering financial burden incurred by tens of thousands treated for Lyme disease — possibly more than $1 billion a year in the US alone.

What's more, the mountain of data chips away at some longstanding mysteries surrounding Lyme disease: What kinds of symptoms people seek treatment for after a standard course of antibiotics, and how much diagnosis and treatment might predict these later symptoms.

"Our study doesn't tell us anything about what better treatments are — but it tells us there's a big problem," says Dr. John Aucott, an author of the study and director of Johns Hopkins University's new Lyme Disease Clinical Research Center. "We hope it changes the conversation. People, even five or 10 years ago, didn't think there was a problem." (...)

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/lyme...billions-with-no-vaccine-2015-7#ixzz3lDIn2y5H

 

[justy]

'People, even five or 10 years ago, didn't think there was a problem'

Sounds just like the situation in the UK currently - Gp's and Vets are claiming there is NO Lyme disease apart from in three small geographical areas and that it is hard to catch and easy to treat, yet the Lyme groups are groaning under the weight of new members and most of them from so called 'non Lyme areas'.

This is really becoming a massive problem and will cost more and more to deal with. Just trying to get appropriate testing is a nightmare, let alone the correct type/length of treatment.

In the UK I think its pretty much impossible to get anything other than the standard two weeks of oral Doxy on the NHS. Other than that you are on your own.

When we found out my daughter also had Lyme I was very upset and said this to my Dr - that I felt guilty. He told me I shouldn't feel bad - society had let me and my daughter down and had a lot to answer for.