Dr. Gerard Sheehan:

The Senator may not appreciate the difficulties involved. When gathering data about diagnosis in general and infections especially, we get really good reliable data when a specific test goes to an Irish set of labs. That is relatively easy to do. It becomes impossible to get true accuracy if the test is happening elsewhere. We can say anecdotally that for the past few years, we have increasingly encountered patients with that story who have been sent on to us. It is impossible for me as an individual practitioner to know what national prevalence the eight or ten people I have encountered reflect. My best guess is that it is a few hundred people. I also am concerned that with the publicity attracted by this issue and the media attention it is receiving, we will see a lot more people who are falsely diagnosed with Lyme disease.