tailieunhanh - Lyme disease: Diagnosis, treatment and referring

Even incremental contributions to realizing improved health outcomes will deliver substantial social and economic benefits. When the funding request of $100 million for Canadian child health genomics research is compared to the short and long term benefits, it clearly delivers significant returns on investment. However, it must not be forgotten that it is fundamentally the lives of children that are at issue. In the words of a distinguished contributor to the development of this position paper who works in the field of childhood cancer: “there is a unique agony, a wrongness to the death of a child.” The importance. | Lyme disease Diagnosis treatment and referring Catherine Lachenauer MD Lyme disease is the most common tick-borne disease in the country with the rate of incidence doubling since 1991. When detected early antibiotics can usually treat it effectively. Left untreated it can lead to Lyme meningitis or Lyme arthritis. Catherine Lachenauer MD Children s Hospital Boston s director of the Infectious Diseases Outpatient Practice says there s a growing controversy highlighted by current media coverage over the existence of what a small but vocal number of patients refer to as chronic Lyme disease. The majority of practitioners agree that Lyme disease has recognizable manifestations and is usually easily treatable with full resolution with a finite course of antibiotics she says. But there s a minority view that Lyme disease is often a chronic infection that requires long-term antibiotic therapy. Reported symptoms of chronic lyme disease include fatigue musculoskeletal pain and memory problems. So far Dr. Lachenauer says data does not support the use of long-term antibiotics for treatment of Lyme disease. She suggests that pediatricians discuss the lack of evidence about chronic Lyme disease with their patients as well as the risks of unnecessary antibiotic therapy. When pediatric patients present with a tick bite Dr. Lachenauer recommends that practitioners evaluate what type of tick gave the bite and how long the tick was attached. Although parents might be eager for their child to be given prophylactic antibiotics the only recommended preventive strategy is a single dose of doxycycline given under certain conditions The patient must have a known deer tick bite the tick must be attached for at least 36 hours and the ------------------------ CONTINUED ON PAGE 6 New autism software Certain components of language like prepositions and verbs are difficult for children with autism to learn according to Howard Shane PhD director of Children s Hospital Boston s Center for .