The Tick-Borne Disease Working Group was established by the 21st Century Cures Act to improve federal coordination of efforts related to tick-borne diseases. Members will review all U.S. Department of Health and Human Services efforts related to tick-borne diseases to provide expertise and help ensure interagency coordination and minimize overlap, examine research priorities, and identify unmet needs.
On her last day as an HHS Working Group (WG) member, after serving 2 terms, Lyme Disease Association President Pat Smith addressed at the Dec. 2 online WG meeting, her concerns about the procedures of the 2019-2020 Working Group and her concern that the interests of patients were not served by the group. Read below […]
BACKGROUND: The 17th Working Group Meeting turned out to be a referendum on the Patient Chapter of the upcoming 2020 Working Group report. The previous 9 months of the WG had seen that chapter content consistently eroded by comments from just a few WG members which forced shortening of chapter, removal of material, rewriting of […]
The 16th meeting of the Federal Tick-Borne Disease Working Group (WG) took place 10.27.20. Public commenters urged the WG to acknowledge and act on the changes needed for patient relief. In review of report chapters, contentious arguments continued, with Pat Smith again advocating passionately on behalf of chronic Lyme patients. (Below items are not in […]
The recent 2-day virtual meeting of the Federal Tick-Borne Disease Working Group (WG) on Day 1 was more subdued than prior meetings , but Day 2 again brought forth an effort to minimize the patient access to care chapter and chronic Lyme. Day 1 September 15, 2020 Patients and patient advocates delivered verbal comments, including […]
The upcoming meeting of the HHS Working Group on Sept. 15 may be your last chance to influence language on persistent/chronic Lyme. At the last meeting, several members of the Working Group (WG) worked hard to have language related to patients with persistent Lyme symptoms removed from the WG report which will go to Congress at end of year.
In a complex government process, the Tick Act–a bill that provides funding for Vector-Borne Diseases including Lyme – was not fully funded according to the Committee report on HHS. The Committee report has 16M for Lyme and 38M for vector-borne diseases. (NOTE: as LDA has mentioned in prior information on the Tick Act, it is […]
Pat Smith Describes Pre-Meeting Effort to Minimize Lyme. Below in For the Record are the written comments LDA President Pat Smith, a public member of HHS TBD Working Group read (slightly compressed) into the record at the Working Group (WG) meeting on July 8 about the potential WG Chapter report for which she was responsible, […]
IMMEDIATE ACTION Recommended by LDA: Make Your Voices Heard on Persistent Lyme to the Working Group Now! June 24th Deadline. Our government denies persistent (chronic) Lyme and refuses to acknowledge and help those patients. Please submit comments, can be short, about the existence and importance of persistent (chronic) Lyme. How it affects your life, family, job,
The thirteenth meeting of the Tick-Borne Disease Working Group (Working Group) was held online on April 27, 2020, from 9:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., ET. This meeting was open to the public, with request to comment accepted by April 19, 2020. The Working Group reviewed the work of the Public Comment Subcommittee followed by the Federal […]
The Lyme Disease Association Inc. (LDA) feels it is imperative that the Lyme Community and the public understand the continued resistance by government agencies to provide information pertaining to chronic Lyme disease on their websites and in their programs despite Lyme disease being around 45 years. LDA has provided video clips from the HHS Tick-Borne […]