I urge you to take a look at a paper that has recently been published in The Lancet (Sept 2011) on the "chronic Lyme disease" movement:

"Antiscience and ethical concerns associated with advocacy
of Lyme disease" by Paul G Auwaerter, et al.

"Abstract: Advocacy for Lyme disease has become an increasingly important part of an antiscience movement that denies both the viral cause of AIDS and the benefits of vaccines and that supports unproven (sometimes dangerous) alternative medical treatments. Some activists portray Lyme disease, a geographically limited tick-borne infection, as a disease that is insidious, ubiquitous, difficult to diagnose, and almost incurable; they also propose that the disease causes mainly non-specific symptoms that can be treated only with long-term antibiotics and other unorthodox and unvalidated treatments. Similar to other antiscience groups, these advocates have created a pseudoscientific and alternative selection of practitioners, research, and publications and have coordinated public protests, accused opponents of both corruption and conspiracy, and spurred legislative efforts to subvert evidence-based medicine and peer-reviewed science. The relations and actions of some activists, medical practitioners, and commercial bodies involved in Lyme disease advocacy pose a threat to public health."

Of particular note for any science blogger is this comment in the conclusions:

"As with other antiscience groups, many Lyme disease activists are well funded and often connected to influential political and media sources. Treatment of Lyme disease with long-term antibiotics is profitable for LLMDs and can be falsely reassuring to patients, who believe that they have a debilitating chronic infection and thus do not seek diagnosis and treatment for other disorders. There is no deficiency of either new patients or activists. The medical anthropologist Sharon Kaufman wrote that “Information technology has transformed the way trust and knowledge are produced”. Most people now find medical information on the internet, and the websites of LLMDs and activists are often viewed as legitimate and reliable sources of information, which they may not be."

In response, these two sites should be helpful…

Lyme-Literate Doctor Referral Database:

http://www.lymediseaseassociation.org/Doctor_Referrals.html

CALDA is a great site for all kinds of information, and the yahoo group blog is wonderful

http://www.lymedisease.org/

Thank you for your question! I am contacting my friend to see what she can recommend and will post what I find out.

Best,
Cat