Opinion | Long-Haul Covid and the Chronic Illness Debate
But the particular case of Lyme disease brings the question to a sharp point, as treatment for lymph has, more than other chronic conditions Deeply polarized. There is an official consensus that regards the “post-treatment Lyme-disease syndrome” as a problem without explicit treatment, and then a small group of doctors who are certain that the infection persists on its own and is on antibiotics and other medications. Can be treated with, indeed in ways that gradually bring most patients back to health.
As it happens, the minority view – that chronic Lyme is actually an old infection, and not just an autoimmune response or a psychotic malady – is a new defense this month: a book called “Chronic: The Hidden Cause of the Autoimmune Epidemic and How to Get Better Again, ”is written by Dr. Steven Phillips, a Lyme businessman and researcher, and musician Dana Parish, one of his patients.
The book makes the case that the authors have spread an array of Lyme +, tick-borne pathogens that often infect patients simultaneously, not only to account for More than 400,000 cases Lyme disease is diagnosed every year in the United States, but also for the number of unknown infections beyond that – left un-diagnosed or incorrectly and untreated due to a combination of test failures, institutional bias, and the horrors of the diseases themselves is.
Then further, they argue that most of these cases can be treated effectively. Many people who are told that they have a condition that can only be managed, cannot be eliminated – to say anything about people saying “it’s all in your head” – a common condition May return to, if not always good health, prolonged oral antibiotics and a doctor willing to work with them, who performs the drug combination.
In Lim’s specific (but in his view, fairly broad) case, in other words, they are dismissive of the “frightening durability” of the Velasquez-Manoff chronic-fatigue-diagnosed diagnosis to many long-standing Kovid patients. Congratulations. Even if issues specific to the individual immune system help to make some Lyme cases long-term and others not, the infection itself is generally still curable, and people with the worst symptoms are forever. One does not have to suffer in the same way.
“Chronic” provides a mix of scientific research and clinical and personal experience to make the case; If you are particularly interested in the questions that raise it, I also recommend reading “Treat unknown“ The best journalist account of the Lime controversy and “plunge into”, by Pamela WeintraubConquering Lyme disease,Brian A. of Columbia and Jennifer Sotsky By Fallon – A more cautious and academic account.
But I have a particular reason for highlighting the book Phillips and Parish, because Phillips is also my physician, with whom I have worked for much longer than the last five years. I think I would like my argument to be reassuring on its own terms, but my bias is clear and heavy, as their remedies are crucial to my incomplete recovery from Lime.
