Experts expect bad year for ticks as disease-carrying bugs expand range in Canada

Lyndsay Armstrong, The Canadian Press HALIFAX — The prevalence of ticks that can carry Lyme disease is expected to be higher than ever in much of Canada this year, researchers say. Vett Lloyd, a researcher and director of the Lloyd Tick Lab at Mount Allison University in New Brunswick, says that as the impacts of…

This Tick Can Make You Allergic to Meat, and It’s Spreading

Work on genetically modified pigs might provide a solution to the strange illness “Kristina Carlson didn’t think much about the tick she pulled off her torso while she was hiking in the mountains of North Carolina in September 2020. But back home in Mississippi a month later, Carlson complained to her doctor of aching joints…

BCCDC releases map of risk areas where people could contract Lyme disease

The British Columbia Centre for Disease Control has updated its information on Lyme disease in the province. A Facebook post shows a map of the province and includes the areas the BCCDC considers ‘high-risk’ Lyme disease zones. “It’s certainly an update, and contradicts much of what doctors have been telling patients throughout the province for…

Montreal Gazette: Quebec opening 15 long-COVID and Lyme disease clinics

[CanLyme Note: If these clinics as regards to Lyme disease are to be bound to follow the current Association of Medical Microbiology and Infectious Disease Canada and Public Health Agency of Canada endorsed guidelines then taxpayers will have their tax dollars wasted once again and chronic Lyme disease sufferers will continue to burden the tax payer…

CBC News: This Toronto woman says she’s ‘living in hell’ as ticks invade her back yard

May 18, 2022 Michelle Snider says she’s has had to pull 25 to 30 ticks off her dogs and herself in 7 days A Toronto woman is warning people to check for ticks after she found several on herself and her two dogs in the past week. Michelle Snider, who lives in the Long Branch…

Global TV News: Nova Scotia has the highest tick-to-human ratio in the country: biology professor

By Alexa MacLean, Global News May 17th, 2022 A biology professor who studies ticks for a living says Nova Scotians should expect to encounter the parasites whenever they venture outdoors. “Certainly, it’s hard not to notice ticks anywhere in Nova Scotia unless you stay strictly on cement,” said Vett Lloyd, an epigenetics researcher and director of the…

Pioneering Lyme pediatrician Charles Ray Jones, who treated successfully many Canadian children with Lyme disease who were abandoned by Canadian healthcare dies at age 93

“Dr. Charles Ray Jones, a trailblazing pediatric Lyme specialist who has treated more than 15,000 children from around the world for tick-borne diseases, has died.” Access article

CTV News Atlantic: Mother struggles to get adequate help within the Canadian health care system for her young daughter who has Lyme.

Sadly this lack of help for adequate Lyme disease treatment is a Canada-wide problem due in large part to the very poor information given to physicians and other medical professionals by a private self-proclaimed expert group called the Association of Medical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases Canada.  Provincial and federal governments have ceded control over the…

UoGuelph’s G Magnotta Lyme Disease Research Lab receives $1.2M for research

May, 2022 “With more ticks and tick bites occurring in Canada year after year, better diagnosis of Lyme disease is the goal of renewed funding from the G. Magnotta Foundation for Vector-Borne Diseases supporting a dedicated Lyme disease research program at the University of Guelph. The G. Magnotta Lyme Disease Research Lab will receive a three-year, $1.2-million grant…

Hotdocs film festival screens “The Quiet Epidemic” on Lyme disease

Watch this new trailer on Lyme disease being screened this week at the Hotdocs Festival in Toronto. “Lyme Disease was first discovered in 1975, yet there has been very little progress for patients. Meanwhile, ticks are spreading life-threatening diseases around the world. Some people are left without a cure, and many without a diagnosis in…

The Platelet Fraction is a Novel Reservoir to Detect Lyme Borrelia in Blood

Abstract Serological diagnosis of Lyme disease suffers from considerable limitations. Yet, the technique cannot currently be replaced by direct detection methods, such as bacterial culture or molecular analysis, due to their inadequate sensitivity. The low bacterial burden in vasculature and lack of consensus around blood-based isolation of the causative pathogen, Borrelia burgdorferi, are central to this…

Capture Sequencing Enables Sensitive Detection of Tick-Borne Agents in Human Blood

March 7, 2022 Abstract Assay sensitivity can be a limiting factor in the use of PCR as a tool for the detection of tick-borne pathogens in blood. We evaluated the performance of Tick-borne disease Capture Sequencing Assay (TBDCapSeq), a capture sequencing assay targeting tick-borne agents, to test 158 whole blood specimens obtained from the Lyme…

Two-tier testing no better than a flip of a coin: Molecular Microbiological and Immune Characterization of a Cohort of Patients Diagnosed with Early Lyme Disease

ABSTRACT Lyme disease is a tick-borne infection caused by the bacteria Borrelia burgdorferi. Current diagnosis of early Lyme disease relies heavily on clinical criteria, including the presence of an erythema migrans rash. The sensitivity of current gold- standard diagnostic tests relies upon antibody formation, which is typically delayed and thus of limited utility in early…

An Atypical Presentation of a Severe Case of Anaplasma Phagocytophilum

March 2022 Abstract We report a case of a 79-year-old male presenting to a South Bronx hospital with complaints of fever, shortness of breath, severe thrombocytopenia, hematuria, elevated liver enzymes, and acute renal failure. The patient rapidly progressed to acute hypoxic respiratory failure requiring mechanical ventilation. Treatment was delayed for six days because the tick-borne…