Physicians Need Better Education

On Lyme Disease

To the Editor:

I recently moved to Connecticut with my family in hopes of finding local doctors to treat my daughter who has Lyme disease. I assumed the doctors here would be up-to-date on all the Lyme literature. Especially since the state was just awarded a three million dollar grant to study the prevention and treatment of this disease.

Instead what I found were physicians who are still using out-of-date information on testing, diagnosis and treatment. Or physicians who will not treat or test people who suspect that they have Lyme disease for fear that the major insurance companies will drop them as providers.

Many families in this town now have to go out-of-state for treatment because they cannot find a local doctor to treat them or their local doctor dismissed them as a patient because of a Lyme diagnosis.

Did the physicians of Newtown forget the Hippocratic oath they took? Or is money the bottom line here and forget about the families that are suffering?

I think part of the grant money should go towards mandated educational forums for physicians to become up to date on Lyme disease. Maybe then the people of Connecticut can come back home to be treated.

Susan Dlouhy

25 Cobblers Mill Road, Sandy Hook                              July 20, 2004