Via The Globe and Mail: Lyme disease on the rise in Canada, linked to ticks. Excerpt:
At age 28, Kevin Sherriff developed severe nausea and flu-like symptoms that sent him on multiple trips to the ER. Canadian doctors examined him for everything from multiple sclerosis to brain tumours and chronic fatigue syndrome. But a battery of tests failed to explain his symptoms, including gastrointestinal distress and difficulty sleeping, even as his weight dropped from 155 to 118 pounds, leaving him weak and unable to work.
Sherriff, now 31, said it took a trip to a doctor in New York State and $1,200 in tests from a private lab in California to confirm he had Lyme disease and co-infections including Babesiosis, caused by a microscopic parasite.
These tick-borne illnesses, and accompanying extreme fatigue – some days he could barely leave his bed – cost him two years of his career as an elementary school teacher in Whitby, Ont. But without an accurate diagnosis and long-term antibiotic treatment, he said, “I would not be alive.”
Most Canadians think of Lyme disease as a rare illness that afflicts hikers bitten by ticks in the deep woods. Infected individuals develop a bull’s-eye rash and go on antibiotics for a few weeks to clear it up. Problem solved.
The trouble with this picture – promoted for years by Canadian health authorities – is that it does not begin to capture the true threat of Lyme disease, which in its chronic form can turn into a life sentence of debilitating joint pain and neurological problems.
Disease-carrying ticks in Canada have increased tenfold in the past two decades, spread by migratory birds and nurtured by warming climates that allow them to thrive in our own backyards. While reported cases jumped 146 per cent between 2009 and 2012, advocates say that testing is inadequate and doctors lack awareness of Lyme, resulting in gross underreporting and underdiagnosis of this rapidly emerging infectious disease.
Jim Wilson, president of the Canadian Lyme Disease Foundation (CanLyme), says Canada lags far behind the United States in testing for the multiple strains of bacteria that can cause Lyme.
Canadian tests and clinical exams are “way too narrowly focused for what we’re running into in the wild,” Wilson said.
According to the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC), only 315 cases of Lyme disease were reported in 2012. The actual number is likely in the thousands, Wilson said, noting that 3,000 patients contact his organization each year. A 2013 report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that 300,000 Americans are diagnosed with Lyme disease each year – 10 times the reported number of 30,000.