CT Lyme bill passes with unanimous approval!

The Connecticut Lyme bill received unanimous approval in that State's House of Representatives today. The bill is designed to protect doctors who treat Lyme disease and, in particular, Chronic Lyme disease. Introduced by State Representatives Kimberly Fawcett and Jason Bartlett, the bill also received unanimous support from the State's Joint Committee on Public Health in an earlier vote.

The bill has the support of the Connecticut State Medical Society, although not from its Department of Public Health.

Today's vote in the House of Representatives brings the bill one important step closer to becoming law. It is a shame that medical systems should become so broken that legislative solutions would seem to be the most efficient way of addressing such issues -- perhaps this is what is needed in Canada. Connecticut may soon join the ranks of New York and Rhode Island, which already have Lyme doctor protection laws in place. The bill now moves on to the Senate.

"I had no idea what last July was going to present to me when my husband was diagnosed with a life threatening case of Lyme disease," said Rep. Fawcett.

State Representative Jason Bartlett has made this his cause because his mother has Chronic Lyme disease.

For the full story, see this article on News Channel 8, wtnh.com. Below is a video report from News Channel 8 as well.



Here is another well-written piece from The Connecticut Post. "[The bill] comes down on the side of people who suffer from Lyme in this big debate," said state Rep. William Tong, D-Stamford, a bill co-sponsor. "It says the scientific community can have that debate, but we're not going to let anybody else go without treatment."

Debate: Now there is a concept to contemplate; not medical Colleges shutting down doctors who are trying to help those suffering from Chronic Lyme disease; not the IDSA summarily ignoring the more than 19,000 articles in medical literature that demonstrate the persistence of Chronic Lyme infections; not Health Canada revising Canada's Lyme disease guidelines without the highly qualified leadership of the Canadian Lyme Disease Foundation; not Health Canada sticking by Lyme tests and a National Case Definition that have been shown to be seriously flawed. Medical progress should not be defined by what big pharmaceutical dollars call progress. The medical community needs to get to a place where it can have a meaningful conversation about emerging medicine and competing ideas.