Dr. Fallon – Video on Upcoming Conference

LDA/Columbia Lyme Conference Early Discount Registration Prices Expire on April 5

• 15th Annual Lyme & Tick-Borne Diseases:
• Medical, Neuropsychiatric & Public Health Implications
• May 3 & 4, 2014 Downtown Marriott, Providence, RI
• CME (physician) & CE (social workers & psychologists) credits offered. Public also invited to register
• Early conference registration expires April 5
• Special Room Block prices for sleeping rooms expires April 10 (if rooms still available in block)

By reporting recently that there are approximately 300,000 new Lyme disease diagnoses made annually in the U.S. and that unrecognized Lyme has led to sudden cardiac death, the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) has acknowledged that Lyme & other tick-borne diseases (TBD) are “a tremendous public health problem.” Columbia University and the national Lyme Disease Association are sponsoring a scientific and medical conference on Lyme and other emerging tick-borne diseases, offering CME credits for physicians and CE credits for social workers and psychologists, and general registration for the public. A networking reception is included so that attendees can interact with doctors and researchers.

The conference faculty from across the US and Germany will address vaccines, therapeutic approaches to Lyme and other TBD, and novel diagnostics (microarray analysis of tick-borne pathogens, transcriptome profiling to identify markers of Lyme, and metabolite profiles), since current ones, the standard for 20 years, identify less than 50% of cases of early Lyme. Doctors often rely upon the EM (bull’s eye rash), but an expert will discuss the many atypical rashes (or no rash) which occur with Lyme. Several diagnostic techniques under development will be presented, including a first ever study using xenodiagnosis (allowing disease-free ticks to bite humans to detect the Lyme bacteria), which may lend credence to possible persistence of the Lyme bacteria in humans, and a study in mice showing the resurgence of persisting Lyme bacteria following antibiotic treatment.

The clinical implications from this research will include presentations of various treatment modalities, such as the use of IVIG in autoimmune neurologic diseases, IV antibiotic treatment for Lyme, corticosteroids in arthritic children with Lyme, pain management, and an entire session devoted to mental health implications-impact of Lyme on the brain─ including suicidal behavior. Case studies of Lyme mimicking ALS and three sudden deaths due to Lyme carditis will be presented. Immune suppression and genes which may signify a predisposition to Lyme arthritis will also be covered.

Also addressed will be other TBD, especially those caused by viruses. These TBD often lack approved diagnostics or treatment protocols, including one on the rise in the Northeast, Powassan virus, which kills 10% of patients, and Tick-Borne Encephalitis Virus, which can produce long-lasting or permanent neuropsychiatric sequelae in 10-20% of infected patients. Additionally, two other new bacterial TBD which are problematic but not well understood, Borrelia miyamotoi and STARI, southern tick-associated rash illness (infectious organism unknown), both producing Lyme-like disease, will be examined as will therapeutic approaches against anaplasmosis.