By Anna Mansager
Sentinel Reporter
Ah, summer. The gardens are back. The hiking is back. The lawn parties are back. And the ticks are back, too, bearing Lyme and other nasty diseases.
More than 300,000 cases of Lyme disease are diagnosed every year, making it the most common vector-borne disease in the country. Even so, Lyme is sometimes tricky to diagnose, and it can stay with a victim for years if not properly treated.
The Global Lyme Alliance, with offices in Stamford and New York, is funding researchers who are dedicated to finding a more accurate diagnostic test. Recently the GLA merged with the Tick-Borne Disease Alliance to become the Global Lyme Alliance, the better to share resources and further research in finding a cure for Lyme disease.
Robert Kobre, managing director of Credit Suisse, has been appointed chairman of the new Global Lyme Alliance. He has been involved with the Lyme Research Alliance since 2009, and was a dedicated force in helping to put together the merger of the two organizations.
“I felt that having two groups in Connecticut was redundant, and the Lyme community needed to speak with a more unified voice,” Kobre said. “Both of the groups were undersized, and combining resources has allowed us to get quality talent for the organization and for research.”
Kobre first got involved with the Lyme Research Alliance when he contracted Lyme disease himself. “I was looking for an organization that had the best track record, the best research on Lyme disease, when I was going through the ordeal of having Lyme disease,” he said, “and I felt that the Lyme Research Alliance was the one that was doing the best work.” For the past five years, he has advised the Lyme Research Alliance on research objectives, protocols, and grant-making strategy.
The Lyme Research Alliance (soon to be the Global Lyme Alliance) is the only organization in the United States that focuses on multiple areas to fight Lyme disease. They have a strong track record in research, in offering awareness and education programs, in conducting prevention campaigns, and in searching for an accurate diagnostic test. (The current ELISA/Western blot test is considered far from perfect.)
The merger was approved in 2015, and the two organizations have been working together for over a year to officially become the Global Lyme Alliance.
Lyme disease can be notoriously hard to diagnose, as it parrots symptoms of a host of other illnesses. Finding an accurate test is not always easy for patients. The ultimate goal for the Global Lyme Alliance is to help Lyme patients find a reliable test, and hopefully a cure.
“We have programs for any interest, if someone wants to get involved or donate to our work,” Kobre said. “Whether they want their money to go to research, or finding an accurate test, or education programs, or prevention, or whatever their interest is.”
The Stamford office of the Global Lyme Alliance will move to Greenwich in July. Until the official Global Lyme Alliance website goes live late summer, anyone interested in helping to fight Lyme disease can find all the information they need at Globallymealliance.org.
