The University of North Florida will present the documentary film "UNDER OUR SKIN: There's No Medicine for Someone Like You" at 5 p.m. on Friday, April 9, at the University Center on campus. The film tells a gripping tale of microbes, medicine and money as well as exposes thehidden story of Lyme disease, one of the most controversial and fastest growing epidemics of our time.
An open question-and-answer session will follow the film, with Mandy Hughes, one of the film's featured subjects, and Dr. Kerry Clark, a public health research professor in UNF's Brooks College of Health. This event is free and open to the public.
Each year thousands go undiagnosed or misdiagnosed and are told that their symptoms are "all in their head." The documentary follows the stories of patients and physicians fighting for their lives and livelihoods and brings into focus a haunting picture of the health care system and a medical establishment all too willing to put profits ahead of patients. "UNDER OUR SKIN" made it to the short list of 15 films nominated for an Academy Award.
Once a marine animal trainer at Sea World, Hughes was diagnosed with Lyme disease at age 19, but was given insufficient treatment. For more than seven years, her health deteriorated and doctors told her she had chronic fatigue syndrome, dystonia, multiple sclerosis and psychological problems. Finally, a physician diagnosed her with Lyme disease and treated her with intravenous antibiotics. Just as her health began to improve, her supportive husband, Sean, began to exhibit his own Lyme-like symptoms and the couple was left to worry about the possibility that Hughes had sexually transmitted the disease to her spouse.
Clark, who has been teaching at UNF for 11 years, earned his doctorate degree in environmental health sciences, with an emphasis on arthropod vectors and vector-borne disease ecology from the University of South Carolina's School of Public Health. His research is focused on the ecology and epidemiology of Lyme disease and other tick-borne diseases in the southeastern United States. He was the first to ever report finding Lyme disease spirochetes infecting wild reptiles. More recently, Clark has discovered evidence of a previously unrecognized species of Lyme bacteria in human patients in Florida and other states throughout the U.S.
This event is presented jointly by the UNF Brooks College of Health Department of Public Health; The Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida Center for Ethics, Public Policy and the Professions; Northeast Florida Lyme Association; Academic Affairs Inquiry & Insight Lecture Series; and the American Democracy Project.
To reserve your free ticket for this event, go to http://www.unf.edu/lectures.For more information, contact Jennifer Urbano at (904) 620-1623 or jurbano@unf.edu.
