Category Archives: Lyme Controversy

Recent in: Lyme Controversy

Chronic Lyme disease – does it exist?

“Her symptoms started quickly: neck pain, extreme fatigue and intermittent fever and chills. The woman had been healthy until then, and since she enjoyed gardening and landscaping at her rural Maryland home, she wondered if a tick bite might have given her Lyme disease although she had not noticed the telltale bull’s-eye skin lesion. Her doctor told her it was Continues →

Unravelling the mystery of Lyme disease: Why Canada needs to do more

Rian Michelsen is a rising star. Fifteen years ago, he was the toddler who burst out from behind the curtains singing Elvis’ Viva Las Vegas. As a young boy, he played the lead role in Oliver in his birthplace of Bermuda, before moving with his family to Toronto five years ago. Now, as a 17 year-old high school student, he’s a gifted singer Continues →

WSU researchers crack the Lyme disease code

The next time a tick feeds on you, Washington State University researchers hope to make sure persistent arthritis caused by Lyme disease doesn’t linger for a lifetime. Troy Bankhead, associate professor in WSU’s Veterinary Microbiology and Pathology department, and his team have spent more than a decade analyzing an immune evasive protein of Borrelia burgdorferi, the bacterium that causes tick-borne Continues →

Lyme Disease: Diversity of Borrelia Species in California and Mexico Detected Using a Novel Immunoblot Assay

Abstract Background: With more than 300,000 new cases reported each year in the United States of America (USA), Lyme disease is a major public health concern. Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto (Bbss) is considered the primary agent of Lyme disease in North America. However, multiple genetically diverse Borrelia species encompassing the Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato (Bbsl) complex and the Relapsing Fever Borrelia (RFB) group are capable of causing tickborne Continues →

Lyme Disease Frontiers: Reconciling Borrelia Biology and Clinical Conundrums

Abstract Lyme disease is a complex tick-borne zoonosis that poses an escalating public health threat in several parts of the world, despite sophisticated healthcare infrastructure and decades of effort to address the problem. Concepts like the true burden of the illness, from incidence rates to longstanding consequences of infection, and optimal case management, also remain shrouded in controversy. At the Continues →

Dr. Ralph G. Hawkins: Bridging Differences

Dr. Ralph Hawkins gave an excellent talk at the Bridgewater, N.S. conference where he delved into the many problems with diagnostics, treatment and surveillance of Lyme disease. He also broached the topic from a legal perspective discussing the legal principles pertaining to Standard of Care. Watch presentation

Canadian MP Len Webber addresses Minister of Health on Lyme disease

Minister of Health Patty Hajdu readily admits there is “still lots to learn” about treatment of Lyme disease but as typical opts to keep sick people sick without options of extended antibiotic treatment that has helped hundreds of thousands of people who had to leave Canada for help. Instead she wants more research, none of which is going to help Continues →

Shania Twain: I’m never going to have my old voice again

March 8, 2020 “She got the tick-borne illness in 2003, and had to undergo open-throat surgery after her voice was damaged by the effects of dysphonia as a result of the disease. Now, Shania has said she “mourned” the loss of her voice,  …” ” Speaking in a preview clip for an upcoming interview, she said “I’m never going to Continues →

Post-treatment Lyme Disease as a Model for Persistent Symptoms in Lyme Disease

[CanLyme Note: The term post treatment Lyme disease syndrome is controversial and excludes those not effectively treated following the current treatment guidelines imposed upon physicians and patients.] “It has long been observed in clinical practice that a subset of patients with Lyme disease report a constellation of symptoms such as fatigue, cognitive difficulties, and musculoskeletal pain, which may last for Continues →

A Mystery Illness That Changed My Life

“As I was getting my body ready for my 1st pregnancy, my doctor at the time was running blood work, and I was told I had a low white blood cell count. This ended up being chronic, and I went through my first and second pregnancy not making anything much of it. I had seen an immunologist and hematologist, and Continues →

Tipping Point: The Resistance Is Gaining In The Lyme Wars

By Mary Beth Pfeiffer ” Government and medicine have systematically failed to diagnose, treat or prevent a spreading plague of ticks. And they know it. “ For two decades, Lyme disease has had dueling identities.   A burgeoning epidemic wrought by ticks. A raging controversy over why patients stay sick — and what to do for them.   Now, however, the medical Continues →

The General Symptom Questionnaire-30 (GSQ-30): A Brief Measure of Multi-System Symptom Burden in Lyme Disease

[CanLyme Note: The term post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome (PTLDS) referenced in this article is contentious as it implies treatment has eradicated the infectious Lyme disease borrelia bacteria. There is an abundance of evidence showing that the bacteria can survive recommended treatment periods. Many people do well with longer term treatment while others do not respond at all. Other limitations of Continues →

Canada: Serious flaws in a medical system lacking medical and scientific ethic

Presenting at a Lyme disease conference held in Bridgewater, NS, in November 2019, it was said that Nova Scotia lacks proper protocols when dealing with the ignored epidemic of Lyme and tick-borne diseases [TBD’s]. We have the highest incidence in Canada conservatively estimated as 454/ 100,000 across the province to as high as 1,826/100,000 in the western zone. These estimates Continues →