title: Antiscience and ethical concerns associated with advocacy of Lyme disease.
abstract: Advocacy for Lyme disease has become an increasingly important part of an antiscience movement that denies both the viral cause of AIDS and the benefits of vaccines and that supports unproven (sometimes dangerous) alternative medical treatments. Some activists portray Lyme disease, a geographically limited tick-borne infection, as a disease that is insidious, ubiquitous, difficult to diagnose, and almost incurable; they also propose that the disease causes mainly non-specific symptoms that can be treated only with long-term antibiotics and other unorthodox and unvalidated treatments. Similar to other antiscience groups, these advocates have created a pseudoscientific and alternative selection of practitioners, research, and publications and have coordinated public protests, accused opponents of both corruption and conspiracy, and spurred legislative efforts to subvert evidence-based medicine and peer-reviewed science. The relations and actions of some activists, medical practitioners, and commercial bodies involved in Lyme disease advocacy pose a threat to public health.
authors.affiliation: Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, The Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA. pgauwaerter@gmail.com
authors.forename: Paul G
authors.initials: PG
authors.lastname: Auwaerter
authors.forename: Johan S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Bakken
authors.forename: Raymond J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Dattwyler
authors.forename: J Stephen
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Dumler
authors.forename: John J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Halperin
authors.forename: Edward
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: McSweegan
authors.forename: Robert B
authors.initials: RB
authors.lastname: Nadelman
authors.forename: Susan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: O'Connell
authors.forename: Eugene D
authors.initials: ED
authors.lastname: Shapiro
authors.forename: Sunil K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Sood
authors.forename: Allen C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Steere
authors.forename: Arthur
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Weinstein
authors.forename: Gary P
authors.initials: GP
authors.lastname: Wormser
mesh_terms: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D025065:Borrelia burgdorferi; D002908:Chronic Disease; D003254:Consumer Advocacy / Q000941:ethics*; D006801:Humans; D008193:Lyme Disease / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000382:microbiology; D010820:Physicians / Q000941:ethics*; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D028743:Professional Misconduct / Q000941:ethics*; D011406:Propaganda
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents