Fredericton Lyme disease support group wants better testing
Alison Chiasson, CBC News July 10th, 2015
Fredericton area residents struggle with symptoms, treatment and diagnosis
Joy Pitre says New Brunswick clinicians failed to diagnose Lyme disease when she was struggling to determine what the cause of her rapidly deteriorating health was after a tick bite in 2003.
She says she has since spent more than 10 years and $10,000 trying to get treatment for the disease, and is calling for federal and provincial health departments to improve their testing practices.
“It was never offered, it was never even considered that it could be Lyme, or discussed with us at the very least,” said Pitre.
The province uses two-tiered testing, following current Canadian and international guidelines. Current guidelines however, are being called insufficient in a federal bill assented to in December 2014. The bill is causing the federal government to work on a new federal framework on the identification and treatment of the disease.
hi, I am one of those who got tested and got a negative result, yet I am afflicted with most of the Lyme disease symptoms. Lyme has put a stop to my healthy life…I have been unwell for a year now due to a tick bite…My Doctor had no idea that this was going to turn into a Lyme infection….now I too fall into the cracks as a result of testing fails….help us please! I too need treatment….!