Public hearings approach for Lyme disease and floodplain mapping bills
The bill below, proposed in the county of York, in the state of Maine, recognizes the growing Lyme pandemic. It correctly emphasizes the need to educate the residents of Maine as to the risks of the disease and the importance of treating it early. It is clear that similar actions are necessary across the continent.
Excerpted from SEACOASTONLINE.COM ( Posted: 1/28/2010 )
Of significant interest to many York County (Maine) residents, are set for public hearings. The first hearing, for LD 1709, “An Act Concerning the Use of Long-term Antibiotics for the Treatment of Lyme Disease,”
Lyme disease treatment bill
Currently, this bill contains legislation which was passed in Connecticut, where this dangerously spreading condition was discovered in the town for which it is named. In the Northeast and even the upper South, this disease is approaching the status of pandemic. This is an especially serious situation in Maine, where a recent study showed that Lyme disease exists in every county, and in 2008 the disease grew statewide at a rate of 66 percent. Even larger growth rates occurred in York and Cumberland counties, where there are more Lyme disease victims than in any other area of the state.
If a comprehensive education program is in place, and if this disease is correctly diagnosed at an early stage, there is a strong consensus that Lyme disease can be treated and combated effectively. But it is at this point that opinions, expert, anecdotal or experience-based, degenerate into contentious, even adversarial, levels.
That is exactly what happened during the battle over the Connecticut legislation. Lawsuits, preposterous professional and personal allegations and accusations, flew through the air like snowfall from a winter nor’easter. Out of this turmoil, political careers were upgraded and terminated. I have no intention of igniting such a harmful controversy here in Maine.
More at: http://www.seacoastonline.com/articles/20100128-OPINION-1280384
Lyme Handbook 