(CN) — Patients who were denied coverage for their long-term Lyme disease cannot hold an infectious disease society liable for its medical opinion that there is no convincing evidence of the existence of chronic Lyme disease, a Fifth Circuit panel ruled Thursday.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates 476,000 Americans are diagnosed and treated for Lyme disease — transmitted via tick bites and caused by the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi — each year. If untreated with antibiotics, it can cause disastrous health problems: nervous system damage, neurological and heart issues and joint pain.
But some patients develop serious health problems even after receiving antibiotics.
That conundrum has led to a fierce debate, with some physicians concluding that post-treatment symptoms should be attributed not to Lyme disease but psychosomatic disorders.
The conflict formed the basis of a lawsuit Lisa Torrey and 27 others filed in 2017 in federal court in Texarkana, Texas against seven health insurance companies, several medical doctors and the Infectious Diseases Society of America—a group of more than 12,000 physicians, scientists and public health experts who treat and develop guidelines about proper care for infectious diseases.
Dealing with an irregular heartbeat, hearing problems and headaches, Torrey said she saw 36 doctors — some of whom misdiagnosed her with multiple sclerosis and fibromyalgia and said her symptoms "were all in her head" — before she was...
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