Welcome to the Canadian Lyme Disease Foundation

The Canadian Lyme Disease Foundation (CanLyme) was created to promote a more complete and comprehensive understanding of Lyme disease and related illnesses through research, education and advocacy to help reduce misdiagnosis and improve treatments for Lyme disease.

Get help for Lyme

Recognizing symptoms and learning how to talk to your doctor are the first steps towards treatment.

Learn more about Lyme

Understanding Lyme disease is the best way to prevent, diagnose and treat it.

Get the facts

Get the facts on ticks and tick-borne diseases. There are many myths! 

Recent dispatches

No, it’s not all in your head: How a new report could be a massive game changer for long Lyme sufferers

ByEmmett ShaneJul 8, 20259 min read

Top U.S. experts warn of an ‘urgent need to identify and develop safe and effective treatments.’

Mosquitoes unlikely to transmit Lyme

ByVett LloydJul 7, 20253 min read

New report finds mosquito gut deactivates Lyme bacteria.

Vision, passion and tireless work: A tribute to Jim Wilson, the founder of CanLyme

ByEmmett ShaneJun 23, 20259 min read

Wilson was a ‘fearless Lyme warrior’ who championed the rights of patients, CanLyme’s president says.

How biobanks are revolutionizing medical research — and why Canada needs one for Lyme disease

ByEmmett ShaneJun 10, 20259 min read

Lyme disease is a rapidly evolving problem in Canada that won’t just disappear, CanLyme expert warns.

Save the date for the Canadian Tick-Borne Disease Conference: November 8 and 9

ByDr. Sarah KeatingJun 5, 20251 min read

Join other healthcare practitioners for two days of presentations on diagnosis and treatment of Lyme and other tick-borne disease.

Lyme Disease Awareness Month in Canada: Some big wins but major challenges lie ahead

ByEmmett ShaneMay 22, 20256 min read

There’s more awareness of tick-borne illnesses and promising research but progress has been slow.

Where there are ticks, there’s often Lyme disease

Lyme disease is caused by an infection that is most often transmitted by ticks, but it can also be transmitted from mother to child during pregnancy.

Ticks can attach to your body without being seen or felt, and diagnosis can be difficult due to symptom presentation, testing protocols and other challenges. 

Learn to protect yourself

You can support our work

CanLyme is a registered Canadian charity. We rely on the financial support of donors. You can help save lives.

Stay connected

Sign up and get our occasional updates, educational resources, and news from our community of experts.

All of the tools in the most fully featured tick removal kit are on display.

Tick removal kits

We are a volunteer driven, registered charity. All proceeds go to education, prevention, awareness, research, and support.
A diagram of tick hotspots hover over top of an image of a hiker carrying a backpack.

Prevention tips

Regular tick checks are a way to check your body for crawling or embedded ticks. Check everywhere including these hotspots.
Mother and child sit together tenderly in the beautiful light streaming into the kitchen through a multi panel window.

Donate now

Your donation helps us to fund research and education for health care providers, advance prevention and awareness of Lyme disease – and more.
Illustrations in four panels of how to remove a tick by using tweezers and grabbing way low down near where it's embedded on the skin and pulling straight up, and then washing the skin around where it was embedded.

Tick removal

If you’ve discovered an embedded tick on yourself or someone else there are a few important things to remember.
A microscopic view of borrelia burgdorferi, a corkscrew shaped bacteria.

Lyme basics

Although it is most commonly associated with a tick bite, many people who have Lyme disease do not recall seeing or feeling a tick bite.
A woman walks with her two dogs along a path near in the forest.

Prevention

By taking the right precautions and spreading the word, you can effectively protect yourself, and your family, from Lyme.

More news

Save the date for the Canadian Tick-Borne Disease Conference: November 8 and 9

ByDr. Sarah KeatingJun 5, 20251 min read

Join other healthcare practitioners for two days of presentations on diagnosis and treatment of Lyme and other tick-borne disease.

Lyme Disease Awareness Month in Canada: Some big wins but major challenges lie ahead

ByEmmett ShaneMay 22, 20256 min read

There’s more awareness of tick-borne illnesses and promising research but progress has been slow.

Helping kids stay safe in the outdoors, and at camp

ByCanLyme TeamMay 8, 20251 min read

Get our free downloadable camp kit with posters and a campfire song!

The persistent problem of Long Lyme disease

ByRobert G. MurrayMay 7, 20257 min read

There’s a stubborn lack of significant change in Canada regarding the diagnosis and treatment of Lyme disease.

Lyme disease is difficult to detect. But a new device could make it almost as easy as taking your temperature

ByEmmett ShaneApr 9, 20255 min read

CanLyme’s Dr. Vett Lloyd and Dr. Anna Ignaszak studying tiny biosensor to detect bacteria in patients’ urine.

The pathology of tick-borne illnesses

ByDr. Sarah KeatingApr 4, 20251 min read

Presentation to pathology staff and trainees at Ontario Forensic Pathology Services in Toronto.

It’s all in your head: Medical gaslighting a common problem for women, including those with Lyme, study finds

ByEmmett ShaneMar 26, 20255 min read

Health-care professionals often don’t listen to their female patients, researchers say.

Researchers probe the secret of how ticks stick

BySarah HackettMar 14, 20253 min read

Several creatures are able to glue themselves to rocks or solid surfaces – think mussels or spiders – but…

Lyme’s effect on pregnant women and their babies has largely been ignored by researchers, report warns

ByEmmett ShaneMar 10, 20257 min read

‘Future large-scale prospective studies are warranted,’ authors say.