The International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society (ILADS, pronounced /ˈaɪlædz/) is a non-profit advocacy group[1] which advocates for greater acceptance of the controversial and unrecognized diagnosis "chronic Lyme disease".[2] ILADS was formed by advocates for the recognition of "chronic Lyme disease" including physicians, patients and laboratory personnel, and has published alternative treatment guidelines and diagnostic criteria[3] due to the disagreement with mainstream consensus medical views on Lyme disease.[1]
ILADS sustains the controversy as to the existence of "chronic Lyme disease", including advocating for long-term antibiotic treatment, but the existence of persistent borrelia infection is not supported by high quality clinical evidence, and the use of long term antibiotics is dangerous and contradicted.[4] Major US medical authorities, including the Infectious Diseases Society of America,[5] the American Academy of Neurology,[6] and the National Institutes of Health,[7] are careful to distinguish the diagnosis and treatment of "patients who have had well-documented Lyme disease and who remain symptomatic for many months to years after completion of appropriate antibiotic therapy"[5]: 1116 from patients who have not had well-documented Lyme disease; the consensus accepts the existence of post–Lyme disease symptoms in a minority of patients who have had Lyme. The consensus rejects long-term antibiotic treatment even for these patients, as entailing too much risk and lacking sufficient efficacy to subject patients to the risks.[5]: 1115 [6]: 99 [7] The consensus calls for more research into understanding the pathologies that afflict patients with post-Lyme syndrome and into better treatments.[citation needed]
A 2004 article in the Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal on the prevalence of inaccurate online information about Lyme disease cited the ILADS website as a source of such inaccurate material.[8]
False chronic Lyme disease diagnoses are frequently justified due to non-specific symptoms.[4] However, a questionnaire of non-specific symptoms based on an ILADS symptom checklist was found to be not useful for distinguishing patients with post-Lyme symptoms from those with other conditions.[9]
ILADS has also promoted Morgellons, another condition unrecognized by medical science.[10][11] Morgellons—which is generally considered a form of delusional parasitosis by mainstream doctors—involves a belief that fibers are being produced by the skin.[12] Among the top promoters of Morgellons is former ILADS president Raphael Stricker, who claims that chronic Lyme disease is causing the fibers to grow.[11][12] In 2015, The Atlantic reported that Stricker treats people who believe they have Morgellons with long-term antibiotics.[11]