Lyme disease: There's a ruling on the use of the ILADS method

According to the Office of the Patient Ombudsman, on April 18, 2024, the Provincial Administrative Court in Warsaw dismissed a complaint by one of the medical entities against a decision (dated October 2023) by the Patient Ombudsman recognizing the use of practices that violate the patient's collective right to use the ILADS method on patients for Lyme disease.

It should be recalled that the above method assumes, among other things, the existence of "chronic" Lyme disease and its treatment fraught with many dangerous side effects - using long-term, months-long antibiotic therapy, often using 2 or 3 antibiotics simultaneously. With current standards stipulating the use of a single antibiotic for up to 30 days when Lyme disease is properly diagnosed.

The court fully agreed with the Patient Ombudsman's position, pointing out that the evidence gathered in the case leaves no doubt that the use of antibiotic therapy for months in accordance with the ILADS guidelines is incompatible with current medical knowledge and dangerous for patients. In particular, the court pointed in this regard to the opinions of four Provincial Consultants in the fields of epidemiology and infectious diseases, obtained by the Patient Ombudsman, from which it is unequivocally clear that treatment according to the ILADS guidelines and criteria is incompatible with current medical knowledge, has no medical justification, is not effective and even brings significant harm to the patient's health, and current medical knowledge does not know of a "chronic" Lyme disease that would require such a long antibiotic treatment. The consequences of months of antibiotic therapy can be catastrophic, including permanent damage to the liver, pancreas, intestines, kidneys, central nervous system, tendonitis, predisposition to Clostridium difficile infections. Moreover, the opinions stressed that treatment according to ILADS was developed based on evidence of no scientific value, with no reliable EBM-based evidence to support recommendations for the use of prolonged antibiotic therapy beyond 28-30 days, which would prove effective in improving the patient's condition.

A position on the principles of diagnosis and treatment of Lyme disease was also taken by the National Consultant in Infectious Diseases on January 30, 2024, who noted that the effectiveness of long-term antibiotic therapy has not been confirmed in randomized clinical trials on large enough groups and may lead to significant side effects and result in antibiotic resistance selection in the entire Polish population.

On February 8, 2024, there was also a meeting of the Parliamentary Health Committee entirely devoted to treatment methods for Lyme disease patients, during which, with the participation of experts from the Board of Experts of the Supreme Medical Chamber and the Ministry of Health, the ILADS method was unequivocally criticized as ineffective and highly dangerous to patients' health.

Source: MPC