President of the Lyme Disease Association, Inc. graduated from Monmouth University. She has been involved with Lyme disease issues for 35 + years and is a Member of the HHS Lyme & Tick-Borne Disease Working Group, Member of the Columbia Lyme & Tick-Borne Diseases Research Center Advisory Committee, the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programmatic Panel on Tick-Borne Diseases, and the Environmental Protection Agency Pesticide Environmental Stewardship Program. She has twice testified before US House Subcommittees on Lyme and is former Chair of the NJ Governor’s Lyme Disease Advisory Council. She has published on and been interviewed for broadcast, electronic and print media on Lyme and tick-borne diseases. (full bio)
When the CDC announced a webinar offering continuing education for health care providers for Lyme Awareness Month, some thought it would provide much needed education for doctors about the reality of Lyme disease for patients and what the CDC could do to actually help. Many thought CDC would seek patient input for this program. So what really happened on the webinar?
From LDA President Pat Smith’s Blog: What has happened to one of the best Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) players is no surprise to the Lyme Disease Association or hundreds of thousands of chronic Lyme patients like Elena Delle Donne, of the Mystics, who has battled Lyme disease for years. She has been denied by the WNBA league’s panel of physicians as having a health exemption due to being at high risk for COVID 19, thus unable to be paid for exemption status if she does not play the upcoming season.
From LDA President Pat Smith’s Blog: It is with great sadness that we in the Lyme community say goodbye to someone whose life was dedicated to helping others through his work as an oncologist and a researcher, Dr. Neil Spector. Dr. Spector devoted his life to saving the lives of others, first through his work on therapies for cancer patients and from his personal experience with Lyme disease.
May is Lyme Disease Awareness Month, a time to remind ourselves that Lyme is a disease that has been neglected, minimized, and ridiculed over decades and still continues to be. We all need to redouble our efforts to get an accurate test and to get patients properly treated and treated with dignity. The continued arbitrary […]
I am sad to hear about the passing of Polly Murray, an artist, and a Mom, who was responsible for realizing something was wrong when she and her family, and many children in her neighborhood, suffered from similar symptoms. Polly’s family and neighbors were either unable to be diagnosed by mainstream medicine or were diagnosed […]
What a tremendous disservice the New York Times has done printing an article in 2019 that carries a message that doctors, supposedly experts in the field, tell parents of children who they diagnose with Lyme “ Great news, it’s Lyme disease, that’s the best thing it could be….It’s baloney that you can’t cure Lyme disease, […]
The last year has seen a flurry of activity in Washington. Here’s the scoop on the bills, briefings, and bipartisan politics.
Lyme disease symptoms and signs can vary depending on what stage of Lyme disease the patient has. Lyme disease is an infection caused by either Borrelia burgdorferi or Borrelia mayonii 1 bacteria, the latter recently discovered in the Midwest to cause Lyme disease. Both bacteria are transmitted by the Ixodes scapularis tick (deer tick).
The Lyme Disease Association (LDA) reports that the total number of CDC reported 2016 Lyme cases are now available. Never saw them? Not surprising. In the past, the CDC consistently reported Lyme numbers on a weekly basis, as they do with the other reportable diseases in its MMWR Report, which is published weekly. The last weekly case numbers reported, however, were reported one year ago for 2016.
The Lyme Disease Association, Inc. (LDA) would like to thank Mrs. Jean F. Galbreath, President of the all-volunteer Harford County Lyme Disease Support Group, Inc., for her dedication and hard work over the past two decades. The HCLDSG was organized by Jean in 1995 and incorporated in 1997. Over time the group has filled a void in education in the area of Harford County, Maryland, a state which ranks 8th in case numbers in the last official CDC reported numbers from 2015.
