WGBH science reporter Heather Goldstone hosted a panel of experts to take a closer look at the growing public health threat of Lyme disease and how to stay safe from ticks, the tiny parasites that bear the infectious organism.
Investigative reporter Beth Daley joined Andrew Onderdonk, professor of pathology at Harvard Medical School and Charles “Ben” Beard, Chief of the Bacterial Diseases Branch of the CDC to address public concerns about tick pest control, reliable diagnostics for Lyme disease, improving attention from the medical community, persistent symptoms after treatment and the best ways to manage the ongoing frustrations caused by the disease.
During the discussion, Dr. Goldstone turned to an issue at the heart of conversation: the tension between the medical community’s reliance on peer-reviewed research to find better diagnostics and a frustrated public turning to commercially driven, unproven solutions for both symptomatic and emotional relief.
“At some point many peoples’ personal stories add up to pointing out that something in our medical understanding is not matching reality. Do you think that the medical and the scientific community was too slow to make that realization that there was a lack of understanding? Has that realization even happened?” Goldstone asked.
“I think Lyme disease has certainly triggered some very emotional responses from people who believe they have it, or do have it and it hasn’t been diagnosed…the issue is the testing,” said Dr. Onderdonk. “If somebody thinks they have a better test for Lyme disease, it’s pretty straightforward: you run your test in parallel with the existing methods and show that they at least match up. When somebody refuses to do that, that’s not evidence-based medicine. That’s somebody that’s out to make a buck off somebody because they don’t want to spend the time and money to do a clinical trial the way they’re supposed to be done.”
Learn more from the hour-long video of the discussion that took place on Sept. 30, 2014, presented by WGBH News and the New England Center for Investigative Reporting at the WGBH studios in Brighton, MA.
For more resources to on the prevention of Lyme disease, visit the page “Lyme Disease” at the Center for Disease Control.
