Re: testing...

http://www.publicopiniononline.com/ci_12392798

Kelly McGahen, who has Lyme, went to visit Todd Rock, her state representative.

"She left a DVD with me explaining how difficult it is for people to get proper treatment," Rock said.

"I was so impressed that I'm co-sponsoring a bill that calls for the situation to be studied and shields doctors from retaliation for empirically treating Lyme patients."
New tests for Lyme disease need to be developed since those used by the infectious disease people have been shown to be unreliable.

"The western blot and the Elisa tests are for free floating antibodies," said Dr. Joel McGahen. "These are antibodies produced by the body to fight off disease. Without the free floating antibodies the tests will come back negative. And the reason they come back negative is because the Lyme bacteria goes into hiding. Plus, as with AIDS, the Lyme bacteria can attack your immune system reducing its ability to produce antibodies. And the only antibodies the tests look for are the free floating antibodies or ones that have not attacked bacteria. So once the antibodies attack the Lyme bacteria they will no longer be identified. People with low infection will test as though they are sicker than those with high amounts of bacteria. It is estimated that these test may not be more than 30 percent accurate."

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