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The controversial treatment guidelines for Lyme Disease will be subjected to an independent review
under an agreement announced today between Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal and the organization the sets the guidelines.
The treatment standards came under sharp criticism after experts concluded that in most cases Lyme Disease is simple to treat and that a 30-day course of
oral antibiotics should be sufficient to cure it. Advocates on the other side of the highly contentious debate argue that the researchers ignored conflicting
evidence that Lyme Disease is difficult to diagnose, can persist for years and require treatment with antibiotics, sometimes intravenously, for six months or
longer.
Blumenthal launched an anti-trust investigation in 2006 to determine if members of the respected Infectious Diseases Society of America had let financial
interests influence its guidelines for treating the disease, which is named for the Connecticut town where it was first identified.
Blumenthal said today he had delved into the personal investment holdings as well as professional business arrangements of scientists who wrote the
guidelines and found that there may have been conflicts, though he did not name specific researchers.
USA
