Western Nova Scotia’s rate of Lyme disease among highest in North America
[CanLyme Note: What is missing is a transparent collaborative plan to track patients who are only given a single dose prophylactic antibiotic following a tick bite. CanLyme has dealt with numerous individuals who went on to develop a full-blown Lyme infection after receiving the prophylactic dose only then to be denied further appropriate treatment. Collaboration must involve all patient groups.”]
“A new Lyme disease dashboard shows not only that western Nova Scotia has some of the highest rates of Lyme disease in North America but also a potential large disparity in diagnoses among the province’s health regions.”
“Robert Murray, a retired dentist in Lunenburg, who is a board member of the Canadian Lyme Disease Foundation, expects that the same rate of under-diagnosis is the same or higher in Nova Scotia.
Beyond that, he argues the extreme disparity in diagnoses among our health zones doesn’t point so much to a lower prevalence of infection outside of western Nova Scotia as it does to a higher rate of under-diagnosis.
“There’s a difference based upon the experience in the community and the experience of the physicians in the community,” said Murray.”
