Ms Kerry Lawless:

We have looked at the work of Jenna Luche-Thayer and her submission to the United Nations. She has looked at this conflict of interest, the conflict of interest that existed before 2006 when these guidelines were drawn up and the fact that not all of these patents were declared publicly by the people who were involved in drawing up the guidelines. The UN has noted this and is looking at it as a form of corruption so we are very concerned about that and the fact that these 2006 guidelines are still being held up as some sort of standard across the world when the transparency that should have been there did not exist and when there have been notable conflicts of interest. Deputy MacSharry mentioned that he is a member of the Committee of Public Accounts. We have talked a bit about the human cost today and the committee will have seen three patients who have undergone treatment and are in the process of reclaiming their lives after an average of nearly 18 years - 12 years in my case and four years in another case - but we must also look at the cost to the Exchequer. If it is said that there are 45,000 cases of Lyme disease in the UK, I am presuming that Lyme disease is under-reported, which is fairly well established, that costs the UK between £3 million and £3.5 million per year. That is the economic and societal cost.