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Lyme Disease symptoms vary from person to person. (lymes disease lyme's disease lime disease limes disease)
The data and information presented in this web site are presented in good faith and believed to be accurate regarding Lyme disease (commonly misspelled lymes disease lyme's disease lime disease limes disease) and other related diseases. Any and all liability for the content or any omissions including any inaccuracies, errors, or misstatements in such data or information is expressly disclaimed. The web site is compiled for the sole purpose of informing community members of resources and information pertaining to Lyme Borreliosis Disease and its coinfections. Lyme disease symptoms may vary from person to person.
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Consult a qualified Lyme ( Borreliosis ) Disease literate doctor for medical advice if Lyme Disease is suspect to discuss your Lymes Disease Symptoms.
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Lyme Disease Could Take Hold in Quebec
André Noël, La Presse, Montreal, 27 January 2008
http://www.cyberpresse.ca/article/20080127/CPACTUALITES/80126117/5050/CPPRESSE
The deer tick which transmits the bacteria responsible for Lyme disease was detected for the first time in a larva state in southern Quebec last summer, suggesting that the bacteria is taking hold here. The disease may thus come to affect more Quebec residents, and not just those who travel outside the province.
The Laboratoire de santé publique du Québec [Quebec Public Health Laboratory] had seen only adult ticks until now. Experts believe that they had crossed the American border on the wings of birds. It was believed they would not survive our winters to lay eggs in the spring.
Some 12% of ticks of the species Ixodes scapularis found each year in Quebec carry the famous bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi, which has infected a growing number of Americans, including President Bush.
The discovery of larvae and nymphs, particularly in Châteauguay and around the shores of Lake Champlain on the Quebec side of the border, is cause for concern. It could mean that permanent or endemic populations of I. scapularis are present in Quebec, as is already the case in the nearby Thousand Islands district of Ontario. This will only be confirmed, however, when larvae are found in the same location two years in a row, says Robbin Lindsay of Health Canada.
Dogs and Cats Bit
Another sign: veterinarians are reporting a marked increase in the number of dogs and cats bit by ticks on the island of Montreal and in the greater metropolitan region. The Idexx laboratory alone found the Borrelia bacterium in the blood samples of 65 dogs last year, compared to 28 in 2006. Idexx’s positive tests for all of Canada doubled, reaching 747.
“A little dog that had never left downtown Montreal tested positive for Lyme”, reports Tammy Andrews at the company’s headquarters in Maine. The head of the laboratory Biovet in Saint-Hyacinth, Pierre Hébert, concurs: “I have no doubt at all that the bacterium is present in Quebec”.
“We have never seen so many dogs bit by ticks in Montreal, for example while being taken for a walk on Mount Royal”, the veterinarian François Lubrina adds. “Luckily, there is a vaccine for Lyme for dogs”.
None exists for humans, however. People who think they may have been bit--because they have a migrant erythema (a spreading rash) on their skin, for example--must quickly begin taking antibiotics. Dr François Milord, who is in charge of monitoring the spread of the bacterium for the Institut national pour la santé publique [Quebec Public Health Institute], points out however that very few cases have been reported: two in 2004, eight in 2005 and five in 2006.
All these Quebec residents were bit in the United States, he adds, a claim that the Canadian Lyme Disease Foundation disputes. This group believes that hundreds of people have been infected with the disease in Canada, particularly in Quebec, but have been given other diagnoses, such as multiple sclerosis, because their symptoms are similar.
Jim Wilson, the president of the Foundation, points out that “in the United States, the Centers for Disease Control reports that the number of cases has gone from 8,000 in 1993 to more than 20,000 in 2005. The CDC itself recognises that these figures do not reflect the reality. There are perhaps 100,000 new cases every year in the United States. Cases have been reported in northern Maine, which is the same latitude as southern Quebec. But nobody contracted the disease in Quebec? That’s absurd”.
A Long Implantation Period
However Nicholas Ogden, a veterinarian at Health Canada, believes it is entirely possible. The implantation of I. scapularis in a new region can take a long time, he explains. He points out that it takes two years for tick eggs to reach maturity and that very few survive. On the other hand, Mr Ogden acknowledges that our winters are no barrier. “Southern Quebec is a viable habitat for ticks”, he says. It’s not the winters that matter, it’s the length and warmth of the summers”.
The discovery of I. scapularis nymphs in Quebec is an important development, and not only because it suggests the presence of endemic populations. This is because it is much more common to contract Lyme disease from a nymph than from an adult, Louise Trudel of the Laboratoire de santé publique du Québec reports.
“Adult ticks look for hosts to nourish themselves with their blood in spring and fall, when people are dressed more warmly”, she explains. “Nymphs are active in the summer, when people are walking around in sandals, shorts and short-sleeved shirts. But most of all, nymphs are much smaller than adults, so that they are difficult to detect on the skin”.
The results of last summer’s samples, which led to the discovery of larvae and nymphs, are still being studied, leading scientists such as Dr Milford to refuse to comment on them. They should be published within the next month or two.
Quebec residents claim to have contracted the illness in Quebec
Andre Noel, La Presse
Jan 27, 2008
http://www.cyberpresse.ca/article/20080127/CPACTUALITES/80127020/5050/CPPRESSE
David Gadoury, a young dairy farmer, did not realize that he had been bitten by a tick when he took a dip in the Assomption River, close to the family farm in Saint-Jean-de-Matha, a hundred kilometers north east of Montreal. The next day, I had some redness on my foot, but I did not pay attention to it,” he recounted. “I should have, because that was the beginning of a real ordeal.”
That was in June 1999. There were no symptoms for two months. Then his legs started hurting. His knees started swelling, his shoulders aching. By the next spring, his eyes hurt when a light was turned on and his hips hurt. In 2001, he had to stop working. He couldn't stand up more that 15 minutes at a time, read, watch TV or talk for long.
Mr Gadoury, now 29 years old, is one of a number of people who claim to have contracted Lyme disease in Quebec. When he was first sick, he had not been to the U.S. for four years. He found an infectious disease doctor, Dr. Emmanuel Kolyvas, who agreed to treat him with antibiotics for two years. The treatment is very controversial, but that is what saved him, he believes.
Official point of view.
His case, like those of a number of other Quebecois who say they were bitten by ticks in Quebec, is not recognized by medical authorities. The official position is that no-one has contracted the disease in Quebec. Dr Kolyval won't commit himself.
“Several patients were referred to me because they said that they had chronic Lyme disease” said the doctor. “In almost all the cases, if not all, there was not a clear history of a tick bite or a diagnosis confirmed by tests recognized by Canadian authorities.” But the patients were suffering and were so desperate that Dr Kolyvas agreed to prescribe long-term antibiotics and to monitor their progress.
“In a few cases, there were improvements. In others, there was not deterioration, and in others there was no change,” related the doctor. “Such anecdotal reports prove nothing, but I think it would be worthwhile to conduct in-depth research to cut through the controversy: whether chronic Lyme exists or not.”
The recovery of David Gadoury was spectacular. “ For months I had seen an incredible number of doctors, rheumatologists, physiatrists etc. No-one knew what I had. I had my coccyx removed. Nothing changed. They prescribed anti-depressants: I refused to take them. My mother suggested I have Lyme testing.”
The tests carried out in Quebec were negative. Mr Gadoury sent blood samples to a lab in California, IGeneX. The tests came back positive. Dr. William Bowie, specialist in infectious diseases at the University of British Columbia, underlined that the IgeneX tests themselves are controversial: they result in some false positives.”
The president of IGeneX, Nick Harris, rejects that accusation. He sent a document to La Press showing that his lab had obtained the best results during blind tests conducted the the Centers for Disease Control (CDC): IGeneX was the best at detecting Borrelia burgdorferi, the bacteria responable for Lyme disease, in blood samples. His lab looks for the presence of molecules typical of Borrelia, which is not done by the Canadian government's microbiology lab in Winnipeg, he claims.
Despite all that, the lab tests are much less precise for Borrelia than for the AIDS virus, for example. That is why the CDC and the Public Health Agency of Canada recommend that doctors make a clinical diagnosis – for example, based on the presence of the EM rash. However, these rashes don't always appear after a tick bite.
Quebec doctors have almost no experience at diagnosing Lyme disease, claim the people who say they are affected, like Robert Mercil, owner of the Toyota dealership at Chambly. “I fell ill in 2004” says this business man. “My face was paralyzed. I fell to my knees suddenly. I had positive Lyme tests from the U.S. But in Quebec I encountered a health system that refuses to diagnose Lyme or administer long-term antibiotics.”
Caroline Carrier claims that she and her two young children were bitten by ticks at Saint-Hiliare. Again, the tests were negative in Quebec and positive in the U.S. “Here, no-one wants to take responsibility for Lyme disease” she says. “My children and I had to call an ambulance more than once, but I was chewed out by the doctors. I had to turn to U.S. doctors to get treatment.”
Robbin Lindsay, of the Public Health Agency of Canada, claims that between 30 and 50 people receive a diagnosis of Lyme each year in Canada. Jim Wilson, of the Canadian Lyme Disease Foundation, claims that this is a serious underestimate.
Dr Kolyvas does not know where the truth lies. But he is sure of one thing: there is a need for more research.
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