Have you ever heard of a federal program called Lyme Corps?  Few people have. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is implementing a stealth program: Lyme Corps has no reference link on the CDC website and if you call 800-CDC-INFO the “information specialists” will have no information on Lyme Corps. 

Lyme Corps is supposed to educate health care providers and the public about Lyme disease.  However, Lyme Corps is disseminating harmful misinformation about Lyme.  For example, Lyme Corps is promoting Lyme treatment guidelines that are so outdated and lacking scientific evidence they were removed from the federal National Guidelines Clearinghouse! These outdated guidelines were written by Infectious Disease Society of America (IDSA).  

Lyme Corps is also promoting Lyme diagnosis based on substandard tests - these tests are 50 percent inaccurate! These test are so substandard they have prompted patient-protection legislation in numerous states. For example, the Virginia Lyme Disease Testing Disclosure Act requires all physicians who use these tests to tell their patients a negative test result does not mean the patient does not have Lyme.    

My name is Jenna and my interest in CDC’s Lyme Corps program is personal.  Because of the substandard tests that Lyme Corps promotes, my Lyme disease went misdiagnosed for 17 years and almost completely disabled me. Once diagnosed, a doctor gave me the outdated IDSA Lyme treatment.  The IDSA treatment failed me... as it has failed countless others.

I remained very ill until I found caring medical professionals  who used individualized patient-centered Lyme treatments. These science-based, patient-centered treatments were developed by the International Lyme and Associated Disease Society (ILADS) and are posted on the federal National Guidelines Clearinghouse. 

Lyme disease is an epidemic. The public needs up-to-date information to protect ourselves. Health professionals need to learn about and provide us the best patient-centered Lyme treatments. Don’t let any more tax dollars be wasted on this CDC program.  Please help me stop the secretive and harmful Lyme Corps program.