News & Updates October 2015
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Oct. 10: LDA/Columbia Conference Early Registration Ends
Some med student/post doc scholarships still available
Sign up now to avoid price increase for the Lyme Disease Association, Inc. (LDA) and Columbia University's jointly provided annual Lyme & tick-borne diseases conference, Warwick, Rhode Island, November 14 & 15. The conference is designed for doctors and researchers who can receive CMEs for attendance, but the public is also invited to register. An included reception will enable conference attendees to network with the conference faculty. Beginning on 10/11/15, the conference registration rate goes up. A few scholarships for med students/post docs/NP doc candidates/others are still available thanks to generosity of the Steven & Alexandra Foundation.
"The conference includes the first time scientific point/counterpoint discussion on Lyme disease and possible sexual transmission," said LDA President Pat Smith, "and the possible game changing topic of persisters, which could greatly benefit patients, will be discussed by two of the leading researchers in the world," she added.
Other topics feature very current research and clinical data such as the keynote lecture on next generation diagnostics, novel antimicrobial approaches to eradicate Borrelia persisters, alpha gall meat allergy from lone star ticks, neuropathogeneis, a case report of suicide and Lyme, visual disturbances and remediation, viral coinfections, Bartonella, Borrelia miyamotoi, tick populations, vaccine development, cytokine & chemokine biomarkers, microbial and host factors in immune response, and PANS, PANDAS & Lyme. Brian A. Fallon, MD, Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons is the Conference Co-Director. Doctor Fallon is also the Director of the Columbia Lyme & Tick-Borne Diseases Research Center in New York.
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LDA Meets with NJ Department of Health
On 9/9/15, representatives of the Lyme Disease Association met in Trenton with the NJ Department of Health. A representative from the office of Congressman Chris Smith (NJ-4) was in attendance and a Lyme & tick-borne disease researcher participated.
Discussion centered on the spread of tick-borne diseases (TBD), what the State of NJ could do in the area of prevention, the status of patient care for chronic Lyme disease, and research being performed in NJ on TBDs, in particular, research which has been funded by the LDA. Another meeting with State officials is being organized.
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LDA Provides State Ranking for Lyme Cases in 2014
The Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) has just released in September the 2014 final Lyme disease reported cases numbers. Total US reported cases was 33,461─ CDC has reported that only 10% of cases are actually reported─ that translates into 334,610 actual new Lyme cases in the US in 2014.
The Lyme Disease Association, Inc. (LDA) has ranked the top 15 states based on those CDC reported Lyme case numbers. LDA State Ranking by Reported CDC Lyme Cases------------------(10x= actual cases) 1. Pennsylvania 7,487----------------------------------------------- 74,870
2. Massachusetts 5,304--------------------------------------------- 53,040
3. New York 3,736 (combined NYC & upstate) *------------- 37,360
4. Jersey 3,286-------------------------------------------------------- 32,860
5. Connecticut 2,360------------------------------------------------- 23,600
6. Minnesota 1,416--------------------------------------------------- 14,160
7. Maine 1,401--------------------------------------------------------- 14,010
8. Maryland 1,373----------------------------------------------------- 13,730
9. Wisconsin 1,361---------------------------------------------------- 13,610
10. Virginia 1,346------------------------------------------------------ 13,460
11. Rhode Island 904--------------------------------------------------- 9,040
12. New Hampshire 724----------------------------------------------- 7,240
13. Vermont 599--------------------------------------------------------- 5,990
14. Delaware 417------------------------------------------------------- 4,170
15. Illinois 233------------------------------------------------------------ 2,330
*In case you wonder why New York State does not rank higher, it is because 19 counties in the State in 2014 investigated a sample of positive laboratory results. The number of cases was then extrapolated to generate estimates of the total number of cases in that particular county. The CDC says it cannot publish averages, thus 19 counties in NY do not have their numbers included by CDC in the above chart. Adding the numbers the NY State provided to LDA, which includes the averaging counties, shows NY to have 6,686 cases for 2014.
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