Final Report of the Lyme Disease Review Panel of the Infectious Diseases Society of America

Abstract

In April 2008, the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) entered into an agreement with Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal to voluntarily undertake a special review of its 2006 Lyme disease guidelines. This agreement ended the Attorney General's investigation into the process by which the guidelines were developed. The IDSA agreed to convene an independent panel to conduct a one-time review of the guidelines. The Review Panel members, vetted by an ombudsman for potential conflicts of interest, reviewed the entirety of the 2006 guidelines, with particular attention to the recommendations devoted to post-Lyme disease syndromes. After multiple meetings, a public hearing, and extensive review of research and other information, the Review Panel concluded that the recommendations contained in the 2006 guidelines were medically and scientifically justified on the basis of all of the available evidence and that no changes to the guidelines were necessary.

International Consensus on Periprosthetic Joint Infection: Description of the Consensus Process

“…compels the medical community to seek alternatives for development of best practices. A consensus panel is one such alternative, and the process sought to produce a set of procedures and methods using group judgment on a subject matter for which objective information is lacking [2,3,6,11,15,17,20]. When judgments differ, it is important to understand why, and to develop a process to create, if possible, a common view.…”

Nervous system Lyme disease

“…54 Similarly, the review committee reaffirmed the evidence-based consensus that prolonged antibiotic treatment beyond four weeks was generally of no benefit and potentially harmful.…”

Chronic Lyme disease: the controversies and the science

“…This controversy primarily exists in the public dialogue, as the concept of chronic Lyme disease is not widely accepted within the scientific or clinical community. At least 19 independent societies representing the USA and numerous European countries have produced remarkably similar clinical practice guidelines for Lyme disease, discouraging the diagnosis of chronic Lyme disease and recommending against treating patients with prolonged or repeated antibiotic courses [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27]201]. These recommendations are also shared by national public health agencies throughout the Lyme-endemic world.…”