Here are the EXACT WORDS HE USED. My friend Kim (see previous blog entry) used her PVR and made sure she wrote it down word for word. His comments were the following:
"We are still learning lots about Lyme Disease. It's an infectious disease that we call emerging. The validated blood tests we use here in Ontario are very effective in picking up the fact that you have the Lyme Disease diagnosis and the treatment is very effective."Doug Sider
There are also a number of physicians not so much in Ontario but across the border who are willing to subject people with ...to my mind are questionable diagnosis of chronic Lyme Disease to prolonged antibiotic therapy and we've got good evidence of the risks versus lack of benefits."
Medical Director
Communicable and Infectious Disease
+1 (647) 260-7313
doug.sider@oahpp.ca
Lyme friends and caregivers, please send this doctor an email and let's try to educate him with the facts and realities of living with long-term Lyme Disease here in Ontario and also in the rest of Canada. You know my story, about being dropped from treatment in Canada and being back in ER within three weeks. Treatment had to start all over again in the USA, since my body relapsed because treatment was halted too early. I'm not alone in that situation.
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| Jim Wilson at the Brampton Lyme Walk |
Dr. Sider, Your embarassing (for government) interview regarding Lyme disease
Dr. Sider,
You have just misinformed an unsuspecting Ontario population by going public on CHCH radio in Hamilton with these statements quoted below this paragraph, and as you see we require answers.
"We are still learning lots about Lyme Disease. It is an infectious disease that we call emerging. The validated blood tests we use here in Ontario are very effective in picking up the fact that you have the Lyme Disease diagnosis and the treatment is very effective."
There are also a number of physicians not so much in Ontario but across the border who are willing to subject people with ...to my mind are questionable diagnosis of chronic Lyme Disease to prolonged antibiotic therapy and we've got good evidence of the risks versus lack of benefits."
In your position representing the Ontario government as a taxpayer salaried Medical Director, Communicable and Infectious Disease, Ontario Agency for Health Protection and Promotion you have just intentionally misled the public regarding a potentially deadly illness. You are not an uneducated man in the field of Lyme borreliosis or you would not have been put forward to address the issues.
What was the validation process of your testing and more importantly, how are your tests able to detect the diversity of Lyme bacteria shown to occur in Canada when no other two-tiered serology employed in Canada or elsewhere in the world has that ability?
Considering the potential harm this may do to many Ontarians who have just heard you, will you provide us immediately with supporting documentation in the form of peer-reviewed, evidence-based research that substantiates your confidence in the "validated" blood tests.
Also, who "validated" the tests? Where is this published, as it must be to form public health policy? We don't want the written policy, we want the science validating your comments and tests.
Obviously a man in your position is aware that Health Canada published a warning last fall about Canadian tests not being able to detect the diversity of Borrelia known to occur in Canada, more and more of which are becoming known to be human pathogens.
Ontario tests are 100% incapable of detecting Borrelia miyamotoi, andersonii, hermsii, americana and many other strains/species that are far enough removed genetically from the strain used in your confirmatory western blot. Many of these are known to exist in Canada so under whose authority have you informed Ontarians that your tests, "are very effective in picking up the fact that you have the Lyme Disease diagnosis"? Is this an official government of Ontario position?
What evidence do you have that all those thousands of Ontarians who have left the province to get proper diagnosis and treatment are at serious risk? You publicly stated they were at risk, the public requires the proof for informed consent decisions.
Has even one patient in Ontario been given the evidence to make an informed decision on the risk to benefit ratio? Not at all that we are aware of.
How does your alleged risk of longer term antibiotic treatment compare to the many serious drugs prescribed by Ontario physicians to manage symptoms, one by one, drug by drug, as opposed to addressing the cause of their overall state of health? How does the risk of longer term antibiotics stack up to Tylenol for example?
Why do you want to keep Ontarians who are chronically ill home in Ontario with no confirmed diagnosis, or another diagnosis due to a negative Ontario Lyme test, but medicated to the hilt with everything but something that will treat the cause of their illness? Clearly your message signaled them not to leave. It is not for the greater good, of the public and the related antibiotic resistance issue, while food farmers still use by far the largest amount of antimicrobials including antibiotics. That certainly can't be an argument of yours? The only benefit of keeping sick Ontarians at home appears to be in favour of the pharmaceutical industry... we simply state the appearance of what is before us.
What has the province done to measure the improvement of the patient's quality of life after longer term antibiotic intervention (please don't provide us old research that has long since been discredited because they defined the wrong patient groups by the very design of the study using the same limited serology), and, what has the province done to measure the reduction of the need for these out of province patients to be on 'daily symptom management pills for the rest of one's life' paid for by the Ontario taxpayer in an ever increasing amount?
These public comments you made are very serious statements coming from a person who people expect honest, complete information from, so those statements require very solid evidence.
In truth, it is our opinion that you have no idea how many or all those thousands of people tested for borreliosis in Ontario in the past 3 decades actually do have the disease because your tests have always been far too narrowly powered. All research indicates we are correct.
We expect your reply shortly with the supporting evidence because the province through you has just made some very serious statements that will affect the health of Ontario residents.
By way of this letter we are asking the Ontario Premier to intervene by implementing a mechanism whereby Lyme borreliosis patients and their experts have an equal voice at any policy/guideline making level and that current policy and guidelines be immediately thrown out and reworked with our input.
CanLyme can provide expertise at any level.
Regards,
Jim Wilson
President,
Canadian Lyme Disease Foundation
www.canlyme.com
ANITA's BLOG LINK ABOUT HER LYME JOURNEY: http://lymefacts.wordpress.com/
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