Arklatex Lyme Disease Prevention & Support

Uproar over Lyme disease article changes medical journal’s stance

Editor in Chief Joseph Alpert, M.D. didn’t know what he was getting himself into when he innocently posted a YouTube video promoting an article in the March, 2013 issue of the American Journal of Medicine (AJM) that asserts that chronic Lyme disease doesnt exist. Dr. Alpert initially claimed that the article entitled, “Common Misconceptions About Lyme Disease” debunked the whole notion of chronic Lyme. He made this assertion despite the fact that the article merely reviews existing Lyme literature rather than presenting any new research. He went on to accuse Lyme patients suffering from ongoing symptoms of actually having a psychiatric illness. Alpert typically gets 20 to 30 views of his AJM YouTube reviews but this one received over 800 and had hundreds of comments from irate Lyme patients. Managing Editor Pamela Powers Hannley admitted that there has “been, much furor over the AJM YouTube video.”