ObamaCare - Lyme Disease Care Ticks Off Patients

Deer Tick Range - Lyme DiseaseUp until a year ago, in 2011, I never paid any attention to Lyme disease since I lived in the western states and it was generally reported geographically in the states east of the Mississippi River. It is named for Lyme, Connecticut, a town where, in 1975, scientists discovered that an outbreak of juvenile arthritis cases was actually caused by a tick-borne bacterial infection.  It was attributed to the deer tick bite, considered treatable with antibiotics within eight weeks or so with little residual side-effects. It seemed to be a minor health threat.

I became keenly aware of Lyme disease when I moved into a community in North Dallas, Texas. My neighbor living across the street mentioned one day that his young wife, twenty-eight years old, was not9 out 10 Cases NOT reported - Actual number is 10X reported. (More than 14,000 cases are reported annually) feeling up to par and was feeling tired and had laid down to nap. He told me that five years earlier in North Texas, during an Easter Egg hunt, a tick bite on her head produced Lyme disease. I did not realize it was so debilitating.

This year, 2012, my neighbor mentioned his wife was still not feeling the best with good and not so good days. That evening, I was browsing movies on Netflix and one caught my eye, "Under Our Skin". The program reads: "The real-life thriller exposes the controversy surrounding chronic Lyme disease and follows the stories of individuals fighting for their lives." The documentary movie, released in 2008, was an hour and a half, and considered for an Oscar nomination.  It was very well produced, full of up-to-date medical findings as well as documented with actual T.V. broadcasts surrounding the controversy, interviews with patients and medical doctors as well as findings from medical review boards.  It presented all views on diagnosis, treatment, cures, prognosis and research studies of the disease. I highly recommend the movie.  See the Online Utube movie short below:

Lyme disease is currently one of the fastest-growing vector-borne diseases in the United States. It has been reported in all fifty states and has grown overseas to include all of Europe, Asia and the middle East too.

                               

Is there a vaccine for Lyme disease?

Vaccines were on the market, however, on Feb. 25, 2002, the manufacturer announced that the LYMErix™ Lyme disease vaccine would no longer be commercially available. Further studies of vaccines are needed. For now, ideal prevention focuses on  spraying insect repellant containing DEET onto exposed skin can help and wearing long clothing can protect the skin.

Obviously, the prevention procedures are a meager stopgap in protection, much less blocking the advancement of this insidious insect pest and its airborne bacterium or even an ultimate vaccine.  The focus, then, should really be on an immunization regimen or, as far-sighted bio-researchers have discovered, the ultimate medicine involving a stem cell biocure.

OBAMACARE - Here is the Real Rest of the Story

The "symbiotic key" to the future of all medical science conquering diseases is the stem cell bio-research studies. Stem cells appear to hold a close association between two or more different organisms that may, but does not necessarily, benefit each member and yet still share like protective antibodies fighting against common diseases or maladies.  

In the meantime, our medical research community efforts could be a collective, shared vacuum of ideas that enables all researchers to achieve immediate and long-term goals. This cost-saving prescription for success enables everyone to avoid unnecessary duplication costs of equipment capitalization, personnel staff and research efforts. It does not include, however, the most important factor, the Obamacare Program. How, you say?

Obamacare Medical Oversight Board & In-Plan Coverage

Under Obamacare, the Medical Oversight Board set up the National Healthcare Program Medical Guidelines for permissible patient care treatments and allowable in-plan coverage. Which diseases are undesirable to treat? Ones that are open-ended, of course. HIV is an open-ended disease, one with no end to the patient drug maintenance treatments or medical procedures for quality of life, because there is no foreseeable cure. Fortunately, it is a political hot potato program that garnered a lot of funding, research efforts and focus because of gay rights issues.  Many other illnesses, however, are deserving of the same attentions too, but lack political clout or public notoriety. Lyme Disease is one of the casualties.

The dilemma is that Lyme Disease is open-ended treatment and is a "Big Pharma" (Pharmaceutical Industrial Giants) political football. It is seen as a gateway research disease to understanding and unlocking the world of stem cell research and Big Pharma profits.  But, it is also viewed as too costly to treat because it is open ended and the Obamacare Gatekeepers, the Medical Oversight Board, wants to keep Lyme disease in check by "coordinating" with Big Pharma to clinically define the disease cured after a four week treatment period with routine antibiotics. Further prophylactic medicinal drug maintenance is discouraged because after four weeks it is deemed a psychosomatic condition due to imagined feelings of malaise and tiredness. This joint concurrence documents elimination of further medicine treatments and allowable compensation for that coverage. (See the CDC Report at the bottom) The Obamacare Healthcare Program is now off the hook to treat the patients further due to this clinical finding. The private insurance companies are now off the hook too. Here is a glaring example about cooperation between Big Government, Big Pharma and Big Private Insurance within a grossly broken national health system! ...And, this is just one way of many "short-cuts" of the Obamacare patient coverage ramping up!

Big Pharma, Big Govt, Big Insurance, Big Profits - Everybody Wins?

The research and for developing pharmaceutical products or medical diagnostics involving all  "Patents and Other Genomic Inventions" dramatically changed as of Thursday, July 13, 2000.

"The patentability of inventions under U.S. law is determined by the Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in the Department of Commerce. In general, raw products of nature are not patentable. DNA products usually become patentable when they have been isolated, purified, or modified to produce a unique form not found in nature. Currently over three million genome-related patent applications have been filed. U.S. patent applications are confidential until a patent is issued, so determining which sequences are the subject of patent applications is impossible. Those who use sequences from public databases today risk facing a future injunction if those sequences turn out to be patented by a private company on the basis of previously filed patent applications."

"The patenting of gene fragments is controversial too. Some say that patenting such discoveries is inappropriate because any given EST, expressed sequence tags of gene fragments, the effort to find it is small compared with the actual long laborious work of isolating and characterizing a gene and gene product, finding out what it does, and then developing a commercial product. Some researchers feel that allowing holders of such "gatekeeper" patents to exercise undue control over the commercial fruits of genome research would be unfair."

The apparent coalition of Big Pharma, Big Government and Big Insurance for their mutual benefit is obvious in controlling patient services oversight too.

1. Can a free open market program where Insurance companies cross state lines to bring in more competition along with tort reforms for litigation lawyer fees and reduced damage awards bring down medical costs?
   
2. What can be done about high Pharmaceutical research and manufacturing costs which produce expensive drugs in order to recapture costs and return profits, which is another major patient concern? 
3. Have you talked to your own physician about your concern on these issues?
   

You now can decide if the Federal Government is looking out for your best interests through the National Obamacare Health Program.  Read what is being promoted on the official CDC website below:

Centers for Disease Control

and Prevention

 

Post-Treatment Lyme Disease Syndrome

(Excerpted Information Provided by C.D.C)

Approximately 10 to 20% of patients treated for Lyme disease with a recommended 2-4 week course of antibiotics will have lingering symptoms of fatigue, pain, or joint and muscle aches¹. In some cases, these can last for more than 6 months. Although often called “chronic Lyme disease,” this condition is properly known as “Post-treatment Lyme disease Syndrome” (PTLDS).

The exact cause of PTLDS is not yet known. Most medical experts believe that lingering symptoms are due to residual damage to the tissues and the immune system that occurred during the infection. Similar complications and auto-immune responses are known to occur following other infectious diseases.

In contrast, a few health care providers tell patients that these symptoms reflect persistent infection with Borrelia burgdorferi. However, there is no credible scientific evidence that PTLDS is caused by persistent infection. More importantly, studies have shown that patients treated with prolonged courses of antibiotics do not do better than patients treated with placebo.

References - http://www.cdc.gov/lyme/postLDS/index.html

1. Marques, A. Chronic Lyme disease: a review. Infect Dis Clin North Am 2008; 22:341-60.
2. Feder, et al. A Critical Appraisal of “Chronic Lyme Disease”. New Eng. J. Med. 2008; 357:1422-30.

Comments

[TCapman]

:Years ago when my kids were playing softball I met a young mother who was bitten by the deer tick on a camping trip. She had countless and unbelievable problems as a result of this bite. Be careful cuz living out there in Texas. Have a very Happy Birthday. xo cuztc.