Dr. Ed Masters of Family Physicians Group in Cape Girardeau recently lectured in Italy about a study on Lyme disease and the bacteria that causes it.

Masters spoke at the VI International Conference on Lyme Borreliosis in Bologna, Italy.

Co-authors of the study included Dr. Tom Kollars and Dr. Jim Oliver of the Institute of Anthropodology at Georgia Southern University, Dr. David Persing of the Mayo Clinic, Dr. Bob Lane of the University of California, and Dr. Paul Duray of Harvard. Kollars is living in Advance while doing Lyme research in Southeast Missouri.

Recent publications by Masters in national medical journals include "Missouri Lyme Disease, 1989-1992" in the March issue of The Journal of Spirochetal and Tick-borne Diseases. It was co-authored by Dr. Denny Donnell and Michael Fobbs of the Missouri Department of Health. In May an article in Emergency Medicine titled "Differentiating Loxoxcelism from Lyme Disease" was published with co-author, Dr. Lloyd King Jr., chairman of dermatology at Vanderbilt Medical School. In June, the journal, Infectious Diseases in Clinical Practice, included a report titled "Spirochetemia After Continuous High-Dose Oral Amoxicillin Therapy," co-authored by Pam Lynxwiler and Julie Rawlings of the Texas Department of Health.