Paula Jackson Jones, Lincoln County resident and president and co-founder of Midcoast Lyme Disease Support & Education, has been awarded a full scholarship and will be attending the 17th annual Lyme Disease Association/Columbia CME Lyme Conference taking place Oct. 15 and 16 in St. Paul, Minnesota.The conference focus will be Lyme & Other Tick-Borne Diseases: New Strategies to Tackle an Expanding Epidemic. 

Dr. Brian Fallon, MD of Columbia University is the conference director and over the weekend many distinguished professors, researchers and medical providers from John Hopkins Univ, National Center for Emerging * Zoonotic Infectious Diseases (CDC), MIT, Columbia University Medical Center, George Mason University, Mayo Clinic, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School will share cutting edge developments in research, testing and treating options.

Midcoast Lyme Disease Support & Education (MLDSE) is a nonprofit 501(c) (3) organization and Maine-partner of the national Lyme Disease Association that raises awareness, fosters education, advocates for change and provides support to those affected by Lyme and tick-borne disease across Midcoast Maine. Awarded educational grants for their dedication and steadfast commitment to raising year round awareness, MLDSE conducts prevention and education talks, workshops, events and conference across Midcoast Maine.

A survivor of late stage neurological Lyme disease complicated by four other tick-borne coinfections, Jackson Jones went two years and saw over 23 different medical providers before finally getting her diagnosis. Treatment lasted four years and she is now two years in remission. She was awarded this scholarship and given an opportunity to bring education back to the people of Midcoast Maine because of her passion and commitment to combating the growing epidemic taking place not only in her state but within her community.

"This disease has evolved so much since the 1970s and so must our way of thinking," Jackson Jones says. "Ticks are still out and are carrying multiple diseases that don't always present with the classic bull's-eye rash and only throwing two weeks of Doxycycline at someone is no longer the answer. Babesia, for example, which is a growing concern here in Maine, is a relative of malaria and it presents differently and has a totally different treatment approach. So getting bit by a tick and contracting Babesia you won't get a bull's-eye and the ELISA test that is done in the medical offices will not pick it up unless the doctor specifically tests for it. The ELISA is strictly looking for one strain of borrelia burdorferi (Lyme disease) and there are currently four strains that exist. These medical conferences and the information that is being presented at these conferences is vital to combating the fastest growing infectious disease epidemic (per the CDC) here in Maine. Doctors need to be educated on the cutting edge of research, diagnostic and treatment development in order to give to their patients their very best medical approach."

Registration for this conference for interested medical providers is still open and information can be found at https://www.lymediseaseassociation.org/info-registration

For more information about Midcoast Lyme Disease Support & Education (MLDSE), visit their website: www.mldse.org