Paul Farmer on Infectious Diseases

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Tracy Kidder wrote Mountains Upon Mountains in 2003, tracing the work of Dr. Paul Farmer, anthropologist and epidemiologist, winner of the MacArthur "genius grant," who has worked with some of the poorest patient populations in the world, as well as some of the most prosperous in Boston.

Statements made about tuberculosis treatment in the book are most interesting.

From Chapter 13:

Meager incomes don't guarantee abysmal health statistics, but
the two usually go together....One-third of humanity, have TB bacilli in
their bodies, but the disease tends to remain latent. It multiplies into
bone-eating, lung-consuming illness in only about 10 percent of the
infected. The likelihood of getting sick increases greatly, though, for
those who suffer from malnutrition or various diseases...

Though I wouldn't necessarily equate Lyme patients in the US with Tuberculosis patients in Haiti, a few similarities are present. Both diseases seem to be latent in many patients, coming out due to malnutrition or coinfection. (Many Lyme patients seem to lack vital nutrients, perhaps due to the infection itself.) And with Lyme patients unable to get diagnosed or treated, due to our healthcare system and the disbelief in chronic Lyme, Americans are often healthcare poor when it comes to Lyme disease.

What is the answer? In Haiti, the answer to TB is antibiotics. When the disease is resistent to a single course of one antibiotic, then multiple stronger antibiotics are given, for as long as two years.

So what is the answer for Lyme patients?

Kidder, T. (2003). Mountains upon Mountains. NY: Random House.