Those who have been dealing with Lyme borreliosis for a long time know that denial of Lyme disease always exceeds reasonable limits.
It began with the fact that, despite obvious symptoms, this millennia-old disease was only thoroughly investigated in the 1970s, and a description of the disease was published in 1982. (Its medical name is linked to the founder of our foundation, Dr. Béla Bózsik, who proposed it at the Second International Lyme Congress). The oldest sample of Borrelia was collected in Gödöllő in 1884 and comes from a museum tick. 100 years have passed…
But in 1994, this “grace period” came to an end when the diagnostic criteria for Lyme disease were deliberately rewritten at the infamous Dearborn conference, thereby intentionally excluding about half of the patients, the so-called “seronegative” cases, in full awareness of the gravity of this decision.
The “gift” of the 2010s to the Lyme community is Post Treatment Lyme Disease Syndrome, which is poorly defined but nevertheless widespread, referring to symptoms that remain after treatment (PTLDS). It is often used by those who believe in the possibility of “reinfection” or persistent infection despite treatment. However, it is most common in cases where the doctor has already provided treatment according to the guidelines, but the symptoms have persisted and the serological laboratory results are inconclusive or have been labelled as false positives. PTLDS is therefore simply a synonym for unsuccessful treatment or residual (co-)infections. This, too, was invented on the American continent, and insurers are keen to use it to refuse any further intervention. Since there was no direct diagnostic method (although it does exist) capable of detecting the actual infection when the concept was developed, and there still isn’t one today, the definition does not contain any objective indicators.
And now comes the latest: DSCATT: Debilitating Symptom Complexes Attributed to Ticks. In Australia, the existence of Lyme disease has been denied for decades, given that no ticks capable of spreading the infection have been found (nor have they been actively sought). Although several journals, including our Foundation’s staff, have presented evidence of human Borrelia strains found in the blood of migratory birds, which could carry the disease across continents, we know that Australians also travel to “endemic” areas, no, Lyme disease does not exist. DSCATT treats the problem at its root: Lyme disease does not and never has existed, it is only in your head. There are only symptoms attributed to ticks. How many more decades will pass, how many more millions of people will have to be (mis)treated for various diseases before Lyme disease receives the attention it deserves? In Central Europe, 20.7% of people have already encountered the pathogen. Does the possibility of this disease even occur to the treating physician in at least one in five patients?
