首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
The Great Lyme Debate There’s a debate raging over Lyme disease, although you’d never know it unless you’ve been paying clos
The Great Lyme Debate There’s a debate raging over Lyme disease, although you’d never know it unless you’ve been paying clos
admin
2020-05-01
29
问题
The Great Lyme Debate
There’s a debate raging over Lyme disease, although you’d never know it unless you’ve been paying close attention—because on the surface it sounds like the dullest argument imaginable. Last year, the Infectious Diseases Society of America issued new guidelines saying physicians should treat Lyme with antibiotics for no longer than 30 days. Some docs think that’s wrong. It’s a seemingly straightforward difference of opinion. So why has the debate dissolved into animosity, with one side suggesting that its opponents have no credibility and the other slinging deeply personal insults on the Web? And why has it now spilled out of medical journals and onto the office of a state attorney general? Clearly, something other than ticks is bugging a lot of doctors.
Lyme disease—the most common insect-borne ailment in America, with roughly 20,000 cases diagnosed each year and more undetected—is transmitted mostly by a well-known pest, the deer tick. But the real culprit is something even nastier, a bacterium called Borrelia burgdorferi that lives in the tick’s gut. When Borrelia infiltrates the human body, it can cause a suite of distinctive symptoms, most notably a flulike feeling and a red rash like a bull’s-eye. Sometimes, though, it causes no symptoms at all, and that’s more dangerous, because the early signs are the only warnings doctors have. If Lyme is left undiagnosed and untreated, its consequences can be serious, including arthritis, meningitis, heart problems and inflammation of the brain. "The real secret," says Dr. Michael Zimring, director of the Center for Wilderness and Travel Medicine at Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore, "is to be able to recognize the disease early enough."
Zimring would know. Several years ago his wife felt ftuish and came down with an oval-shaped rash. Zimring wasn’t sure what she had, but "knowing our backyard is loaded with ticks was enough," he says. He started his wife right away on one of the classic, effective antibiotics used to treat Lyme. When her medical tests came back, they proved him right. "I treated her for three weeks," he says, "and that was it. No problem."
Unfortunately, not all Lyme patients recover so easily. And that’s what’s at the heart of the debate—some docs think patients who are treated inadequately can develop a chronic form of the disease, while others deny that it’s possible. Dr. Rafael Stricter, president of the International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society, believes in "chronic Lyme disease," and he says that in his clinical experience about 70 percent of patients with it get better if they’re treated long term with the same drugs used to treat early infection. But the doctors who made the new IDSA guidelines on treatment say there’s no such thing as chronic Lyme, because in most patients who complain of it, Borrelia isn’t detectable in the body. Dr. Gary Wormser, who chaired the IDSA panel, prefers the term "post-Lyme syndrome." "Treating that syndrome with high-dose antibiotics for months—as some physicians did before the new guidelines—can only hurt patients," he says. "It can give them gallstones and infections and lead to antibiotic resistance while not curing anything. The majority of patients treated for ’chronic Lyme’ do not have post-Lyme," he says, "and in fact never, ever had Lyme disease at all."
This does not sit well with thousands of patients who believe they do have chronic Lyme and badly want antibiotic treatment for it. "The IDSA is basically saying to them, ’We’re right, you’re wrong, we don’t want to listen to you, just take some antidepressants and go away’," says Strieker. The IDSA is a highly respected group of doctors. But it’s facing formidable opposition, not just from Stricker’s group (and angry patients who’ve taken to Internet message boards) but also from the attorney general’s office in Connecticut, the state with the country’s highest incidence of Lyme disease. A.G. Richard Blumenthal has launched an investigation of the IDSA panel, looking into whether it ignored any research that would support long-term antibiotic treatment (the guidelines cite more than 400 studies). "Our question basically is whether the guidelines were formulated through a process that was proper, without self-interest or conflicts of interest," Blumenthal says, noting that some of the panel members have financial interests in treatments and vaccines. Blumenthal also worries that the new guidelines might be used by insurance companies looking to avoid paying for Lyme drugs. "The investigation is at an important juncture," he says.
Meanwhile, Wormser is baffled. "How could the interests of the patient be served by treating with unnecessary and potentially dangerous therapies?" he says. "The guidelines represent the best that medical science has to offer." The question, then, is whether that’s good enough.
According to the passage, the following statements worry Richard Blumenthal with the EXCEPTION of______.
选项
A、Some panel members have interests in treatments and vaccines.
B、The patients are treated with unnecessary and potentially dangerous drugs.
C、The IDSA might ignore research that supports long-term antibiotic treatment.
D、Insurance companies might refuse to pay for Lyme drugs due to the guidelines.
答案
B
解析
由第五段可知,康涅狄格州总检察长开始了对IDSA小组的调查,因为该小组可能忽略了支持长期使用抗生素来治愈Lyme病的研究(C),有些小组成员在治疗和疫苗方面涉及经济利益(A),保险公司也有可能根据新的指导方针来拒绝支付治疗Lyme病的费用(D)。故B为正确答案。
转载请注明原文地址:https://jikaoti.com/ti/fVrMFFFM
0
专业英语八级
相关试题推荐
TeachingMethodsforEffectiveCommunicationI.Writeimportantpointson【T1】______【T1】______—theorganizationofideas—tec
ReadingTipsI.Three【T1】______phasesofreading【T1】______—beforereading—duringreading—afterreadingⅡ.Pre-readingt
SuggestopediaI.Introduction—basis:how【T1】______worksandhowwelearnmosteffectively【T1】______—derivedfrom【T2】______
ChineseAmericansI.EarlyimmigrationA.thefirstgroupofChineseimmigrants—cameto【T1】______【T1】______—becamethe【T2】__
ChineseAmericansI.EarlyimmigrationA.thefirstgroupofChineseimmigrants—cameto【T1】______【T1】______—becamethe【T2】__
...Finally,oneoftheprimarypurposesofartisto【T1】______athand.Subjectmatterdoesnotchangeallthatmuchovertime.
Itneverrainsbutitpours.Justasbossesandboardshavefinallysortedouttheirworstaccountingandcompliancetroubles,
There’saschooloflinguisticsthatbelieveslanguagelearningbeginswitha"silentperiod".Justasbabieslearntoproduce
(1)ThebiggestproblemfacingChileasitpromotesitselfasatouristdestinationtobereckonedwith,isthatitisattheend
(1)Someoftheadvantagesofbilingualismincludebetterperformanceattasksinvolving"executivefunction"(whichinvolvesthe
随机试题
临床进行ABO血型鉴定最常用的方法
用热远热,用寒远寒是指
下列不属于桥梁伸缩装置尺寸检测测量器具的是()。
影响土壤环境的因素有多种,下列有误的是()。①土壤的性质;②土壤环境背景值;③土壤自净作用的强弱;④土壤污染的类型及强度;⑤土壤酸碱度;⑥大气环境;⑦土壤质地;⑧降水量;⑨土壤结构
下列关于监理大纲、监理规划、监理实施细则三者之间关系的说法中,正确的有( )。
《国家中长期教育改革和发展规划纲要(2010-2020年)》进一步明确了大力推进依法治教的要求是()。
下列哪项表述是正确的()。
根据以下资料回答题。2009年,农村居民家庭人均纯收人构成中,增幅最小的是()。
小刚在一次由90人参加的英语测验中得了80分,排名第9,其百分等级为
Anewpartnerpushesouttwoclosefriendsonaverage,leavingloverswithasmallerinnercircleofpeopletheycanturntoin
最新回复
(
0
)