LYMEPOLICYWONK: ILADS Lyme guidelines on National Clearinghouse!

There is more than one standard of care for the diagnosis and treatment of Lyme disease, especially in the late or chronic stages. The Infectious Disease Society of America (IDSA) lacks a protocol for chronic Lyme disease and labels it "Post Lyme Syndrome," an ill-defined set of symptoms that does not call for further antibiotic treatment, despite symptoms. However, the International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society (ILADS) has developed treatment guidelines for early, late and chronic forms of the disease, recognizing that Lyme can persist beyond the IDSA recommended treatment protocol.

We are happy to announce that the ILADS treatment guidelines, developed over many years, has been posted on the National Guidelines Clearinghouse (NGC).

They are the first Lyme guidelines which comply with the Institute of Medicine’s new standards for rigorous evidence assessment and patient engagement in the development process. Physicians rely on the National Guideline Clearinghouse for trustworthy evidence-based treatment guidelines. The NGC, part of the US Department of Health and Human Services, requires that guidelines meet high quality standards to be accepted for posting.

Also noteworthy is the fact that the International Lyme and Associated Disease Society Guidelines are the first to use a defined system to evaluate quality research, and the first to include Lyme-patient input.

Following development, the ILADS guidelines were extensively reviewed by internal and external experts and published in a peer-reviewed journal, Expert Review of Anti-Infective Therapy.

This approach to creating, testing and implementing treatment approaches to early and late/chronic Lyme disease exists in stark contrast to the Infectious Disease Society of America's treatment protocol, which offers a limited disease definition and shorter, arbitrary cut off period for use of antibiotics.

ILADS guidelines posted today on the National Guidelines Clearinghouse recommends that clinicians perform a deliberate and individualized assessment of the potential risks and benefits of various treatment options before making treatment selections and encourages close patient follow-up. Using this patient-centered approach should reduce the risk of inadequate antibiotic therapy and chronic disease.

For further, more detailed reading, please follow the link:

https://www.lymedisease.org/lymepolicywonk-ilads-lyme-guidelines-on-national-clearinghouse/

Please note that this information was taken from an ILADS email: ILADS is a non-profit, international, multidisciplinary medical society dedicated to the appropriate diagnosis and treatment of Lyme and associated diseases. For more information, visit www.ILADS.org .

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