Report reveals years of suffering, death from therapies for “chronic Lyme”

Enlarge (credit: Getty | BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI )

Tick season is upon us, prompting fresh warnings about bites that can transmit Lyme disease. But in a report published Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a group of doctors isn't warning about the disease-instead, the group is warning about possible treatments.

Alternative medical treatments for so-called "chronic Lyme disease" are all unproven and potentially harmful-some even deadly-the group warns. That group includes doctors from across the country, including the University of Colorado, the CDC, Yale University, Stanford, and the University of California, San Francisco. In the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, the doctors reveal chilling accounts of five patients who pursued such bogus treatments. What followed was years of heart-wrenching suffering, avoidable life-threatening infections, and death.

"Patients and their health care providers need to be aware of the risks associated with treatments for chronic Lyme disease," the doctors declare. The case reports certainly offer a ghastly PSA.

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