More on Who’s Who and What’s What – NIH Dr. Phil Baker Responds to Blog on American Lyme Disease Foundation
LYMEPOLICYWONK: Last week, I posted a blog regarding the IDSA stealth front organization, the American Lyme Disease Foundation (ALDF). I pointed out that the organization masquerades as a patient organization or an independent source of information, but is really just the members of the IDSA Lyme guidelines panel and a couple of businessmen. I highlighted the fact that Dr. Phil Baker who was responsible for overseeing the Lyme clinical trials at the NIH prior to his retirement is now the Executive Director at the ALDF. I also raised questions about his management of two NIH trials under his watch, the Klempner trial and the Embers trial. Both trials were funded around the same time. Klempner, which concluded that chronic infection did not persist and that treatment was ineffective, was published in 2004. Embers, which found persistent infection notwithstanding treatment, was not published until almost ten years later. During the interim, the Klempner trial was relied on by the IDSA to deny patients treatment for chronic Lyme and no one mentioned that the companion study, the Embers trial, was still pending. Dr. Baker took issue with my post (see below), and I respond.
I am very sick with Lyme Disease. I am in the 9 – 10th month of it. Hamilton Infectious Disease felt I did not have Lyme Disease as supposedly it does not attack more then 1 joint. I have been getting infections through my body and have suffered great pain in all of my upper joints going into my knees, terrible sweats, it is affecting my heart and my brain. I have had hypersensitiveness before this, but WAS bit in the head by a tick and pulled it out of my head in July, of course I could see not red ring, it was in my head, but the itching that I went through, I could have ripped the skin off of my skull it was itching so badly. I have now sent my blood to California and I went to my doctors office as a walk in because I am so ill, and was told at that time (several weeks after Hamilton) that now I am positive for Lyme’s. I want to know who to go to about this, I would like to be compensated for this illness, I am not even able to work anymore. I don’t know if I should be emailing this, but I am totally distraught and definitely not myself anymore. Please advise. Brenda Hardison, Fort Erie, Ontario