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From the
Guelph Mercury
Lyme disease is not confined to 'hot spots,' researchers conclude
Fergus man, B.C. microbiologist collected deer ticks from across Ontario
STEPHANIE MACLELLAN
FERGUS (Jul 31, 2006)
Twenty years ago, John Scott got sick and then sicker and didn't know why.
"It was basically flu-like symptoms," said the Fergus man, who turns 61 this week. "Fatigue, joint ache and pain, muscle ache and pain. I started getting brain fog. I was not thinking clearly."
Scott's doctor wasn't able to pin down what was causing his illness, so he started to look elsewhere. His wife, Kit, drove him across the province in a Dodge Caravan with a bed set up in the back where he could lie down, in search of a doctor who could diagnose his mysterious illness.
"He wasn't well enough to sit up by the time we got there," Kit said.
Four years and a dozen physicians later, their search ended with a diagnosis of Lyme disease -- a bacterial infection often carried by ticks that produces symptoms often resembling those caused by other illnesses. They include rashes, joint pain, sore throat, dizziness and insomnia.
Scott was able to get treatment for the disease, although he wasn't cured and still suffers from joint pain. But back then, he didn't understand how he could get the disease when he had never travelled to the "hot spots" where the disease was most commonly transmitted -- mainly places along the north shore of Lake Erie.
"I said, 'Jeepers, what's going on here?' " he said. "The biology we understood at the time didn't match what was going on."
Now the president of the Lyme Disease Association of Ontario, Scott has spent the last 10 years trying to answer that question.
Along with a microbiologist from the University of British Columbia, he collected blacklegged ticks -- more commonly known as deer ticks -- from across Ontario to determine whether they were carrying the Lyme disease bacteria. The study, funded in part by the Lyme disease association, was published in the Journal of Medical Entomology this month.
Veterinarians and members of the public found the ticks on pets and people who had never travelled out of the province, and sent the tiny critters to the researchers for analysis. Scott and his team collected 591 ticks in the course of their research.
Out of those, nearly 13 per cent tested positive for the Lyme bacteria, including a sample sent from north of Kenora.
The reason, Scott said, is that deer ticks attach themselves to songbirds such as robins and blue jays to feed on their blood. The birds might pick up the ticks in those southern Ontario hot spots, but when they migrate and land somewhere else, the ticks can jump off and find new hosts to feast on.
While the study turned up less than eight Lyme-carrying deer ticks per year across the province, the important point is that the disease can spread outside of the traditional hot spots, Scott said. He thinks more doctors need to be aware of that, so patients like him aren't misdiagnosed.
If Lyme disease isn't treated, the more severe cases can lead to dementia, blindness and death, Scott said.
"It's fooling people," he said. "The rate of infection is low. It's not like it's the flu bug and a lot of people get it.
"Quite often, the medical profession is not looking for it."
But there has been research out for at least 10 years confirming that Lyme-carrying ticks can be found almost anywhere, according to Ian Barker, an animal pathology expert at the Ontario Veterinary College.
Among Barker's research on ticks and Lyme disease, he co-authored a study publicized in the Journal of Medical Entomology in 1995 that showed mature deer ticks can survive over the winter in northern Ontario climates -- hundreds of kilometres away from the hot zones.
However, the disease is so rare outside of the hot spots, there's still not much risk to most people, Barker said.
"In the city of Guelph, in an average year, you can expect less than one person (to be infected)," he said.
From his dealings with the public health system, Barker said he has no reason to believe doctors aren't aware of Lyme disease. The problem is, if the bull's eye-shaped rash most typical of the disease isn't there, doctors won't think of it, he said.
"A physician is not going to make Lyme disease their first diagnosis without the classic presentation," he said.
smaclellan@guelphmercury.com
© 2006 8-14 Macdonell St. Guelph, Ontario, Canada, N1H 6P7
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