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No Warranties or Representations
The data and information presented in this web site are presented in good faith and believed to be accurate. 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.
The Canadian Lyme Disease Foundation, Directors and members are not liable for any direct or indirect damages or any damages whatsoever resulting from loss of use, data or profits, whether in an action of contract, negligence or other tortious action arising out of or in connection with the use or performance of information available from this website.
Consult a qualified Lyme ( Borreliosis ) Disease literate doctor for medical advice if Lyme Disease is suspect.
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We are a federally registered charitable organization (864437603RR0001) advancing information and research about Borreliosis (Lyme disease) and other zoonotic disease in Canada.
Lyme disease is now an epidemic in several US states.4
Estimates are now at 3 million cases of lyme disease in the US in 3 decades. Most of these
cases are from states that border Canada yet Canada reports it has only had a few hundred cases...?
Lyme borreliosis is now acknowledged as the most highly prevalent arthropod-borne human disease in northern temperate regions of the world5. Canadian medicine and science, due to the lack of recognition of the clinical diagnoses, combined with lack of surveillance and research, places us at the bottom of the scale in dealing with this serious disease.
We are years behind.
Many Lyme patients were firstly diagnosed with other illnesses such as Juvenile Arthritis, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Reactive Arthritis, Psoriatic Arthritis, Infectious Arthritis, Osteoarthritis,
Fibromyalgia, Raynaud's Syndrome, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Interstitial Cystis, Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease, Fifth's Fisease, Multiple Sclerosis, scleroderma, lupus, early ALS, early Alzheimers Disease, crohn's disease, ménières syndrome, reynaud's syndrome, sjogren's syndrome, irritable bowel syndrome, colitis, prostatitis, psychiatric disorders (bipolar, depression, etc.), encephalitis, sleep disorders, thyroid disease and various other illnesses.
If you have received one of these diagnoses please go to our
symptoms page and see if you recognize a broader range of symptoms.
If you are a doctor please re-examine these diagnoses, incorporating Lyme in the differential diagnoses.
If you feel you may have Lyme Disease you are encouraged to contact us.
If you have a rash please photograph it (a close-up) and send it to us with as much detail about date/time, place,
any tick bite noticed. Please include your name and phone number for our records in trying to track this disease.
All information is confidential and shall never be released to anyone without your written consent.
Read this...a decade and where are we now?
Ronald S. Ferris, Calgary, Alberta, deceased (1945-2000),
made many a profound statement about Lyme Disease in Canada prior to his death.
Read more about Ron and the impact he had on others and take the time to read that interesting and informative web site.
Lyme Disease....A vector borne disease (ticks are one known vector)
which has caused controversy in the past decades
because of its difficult diagnosis and treatment. The organism is highly fastidious, growing extremely slowly in tissue culture (not
bacteriological) media. The vast majority of body fluid or tissue samples from patients with Lyme disease
do not yield spirochetes on culture. Lyme disease is thus usually clinically diagnosed. Possible detection of serum antibodies to
burgdorferi may only augment the clinical diagnosis. However, acutely antibodies may not occur in
detectable titer, making early diagnosis difficult. Many later stage seronegative patients are very
symptomatic and treatment intervention has been shown to be very effective. The tick O.hermsii has been implicated as a possible vector and some Canadian cases are reviewed.
Lyme mimics many other diseases but clearly an educated doctor will recognize lyme symptoms and include
lyme in the possible diagnoses.
The first documented case of Lyme disease to have originated in Canada was a 51-year old French female
nurse visited Quebec, Canada from 20 July to 5 August, 1984 and contracted Lyme disease. She reported
an insect bite on 3 August 1984 on the back of her knee with erythema chronicum migrans appearing at the
site of the bite on 5 August 1984. The patient presented with meningeal lymphocytic reaction near the end
of September, 1984. Total Ig serum titers in indirect immunofluorescence tests on 1 October 1984, 10 October
1984, and 10 January 1985 were 1/512, 1/2048 and 1/16,384, respectively.
Lyme Disease is not the only tick borne disease in Canada but can be
complicated by multiple tick-borne co-infections such as Ehrlichiosis, Babesiosis, and
Bartonella. Other tick borne diseases include Tularemia, Tick Paralysis and Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever.
Lyme Disease is determined by clinicians,
not labs
...no lab has a gold standard test to date, some labs are just better than others.
The only treatment available to date is antibiotic. If caught early and treatment given in
sufficient dosage over sufficient time all is well in most cases. There remains a significant
number of treatment failures usually as a result of insufficient dose/time of treatment and late diagnosis'.
These treatment failures have proven to benefit significantly from longer term antibiotic treatment and
patients sometimes have to be very demanding to receive such treatment.
One has to be realistic...not being able to find something by available methods in science means nothing
to the sick patient who recovers after many weeks/months of appropriate treatment.
Therein lies the difficulty and undermining of appropriate treatment. The cost
of treating lyme disease with antibiotics can be expensive in the relative short term
so without a doubt business/politics
become involved. Without a definitive test the door is left open for money to rule
over health. However, the cost of not treating lyme, or treating it inadequately, is infinitely more
expensive.
The majority of research is funded/lobbied by 1. Insurers (motivated to keep treatment costs/duration
to a minimum). 2. Governments (heavily lobbied by private/public insurers as well as tourism dollars).
3. Drug manufacturers (motivated to peddle drugs).
The results of this heavily influenced research are what we educate our medical students with,
who then become our doctors with a bias.
Therefore it takes the wise front line physician to wade through the swamp and treat
the patient using good sound judgment. The better doctors learned early on that some of what
they were taught just didn't add up when they encountered their real world patients. Common sense
still applies...even in science.
Symptoms may show up fast, with a bang, or very slowly and innocuously. They may creep into ones
life over weeks, months or even years.
While antibiotic treatment carries risk, it pales in comparison to the serious danger and cost
(in productivity, income and family) of
developing late stage illness that may develop within weeks even before the first lyme
tests have returned.
Learn here what can and should be done.
No Warranties or Representations
The data and information presented in this web site are presented in good faith and believed to be accurate. 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 Disease and its coinfections.
The Canadian Lyme Disease Foundation, Directors and members are not liable for any direct or indirect damages or any damages whatsoever resulting from loss of use, data or profits, whether in an action of contract, negligence or other tortious action arising out of or in connection with the use or performance of information available from this website.
Consult a qualified Lyme Disease literate doctor for medical advice if Lyme Disease is suspect.
Ref:
1. http://www.cdc.gov/od/oc/media/fact/lyme.htm
2. http://www.jemsekclinic.com/lyme1.php
3. http://www.medtech1.com/research_center/cond20.cfm/48
4. http://www.canlyme.com/confirmedUScasesto2003.html
5.Lyme Borreliosis: Biology, Epidemiology and Control
Edited by J. S. Gray, University College Dublin, Ireland, O. Kahl, Free University of Berlin, Germany, R. S. Lane, University of California at Berkeley, USA, and G. Stanek, University of Vienna, Austria
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