Lyme Disease Bill Signed Into Law

Lime disease is the most commonly reported vector-borne illness in the United States, and according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in 2012 it was also the country’s seventh most common nationally notifiable disease, despite the fact that 95 percent of the cases are reported from just 13 states.  Pennsylvania sits at the top of that unfortunate baker’s dozen, joined only by Massachusetts as states with more than 5,000 confirmed or likely cases in 2012.

Senate Bill 177, signed into law by Governor Corbett on June 29, 2014, will establish a task force in the Department of Health to make recommendations to the Department regarding a wide range of surveillance, prevention, information collecting, and education measures. The Department will be charged with the task of developing a program of general public and health care professional information and education regarding Lyme disease, along with an active tick collection, testing, surveillance and communication program.

The Department will also be directed to cooperate with the Pennsylvania Game Commission, the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, and the Department of Education to ensure that the information is widely disseminated to the general public, as well as to school administrators, school nurses, faculty and staff, parents, guardians and students.

The Pennsylvania Medical Society has long supported legislation calling for the state to take a more active role in information gathering and public education regarding Lyme disease. Unfortunately, earlier versions of the legislation also contained problematic language statutorily endorsing long-term antibiotic therapy, a controversial treatment protocol rejected by the CDC, which ultimately doomed those bills to failure.

However, the new law does not contain that highly contentious provision, and the Society is pleased with the bill’s enactment.

Related Posts

No results found.

Archives

Opioids For Pain