Download Letter by Jim Wilson, President of the Canadian Lyme Disease

Letter by Jim Wilson, President of the Canadian Lyme Disease Foundation (CanLyme)
Written in response to the opinion piece “Lyme disease is very real, but it’s no epidemic”
published in the Montreal Gazette (July 12, 2015 online, July 13, 2015 in print)
July 20, 2015
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Regarding the July 11 issue of the Montreal Gazette titled, “Lyme disease is very real, but it’s no
epidemic” by Dr. Christopher Labos. Some of the content is troubling and may cause your
readers to lower their guard.
There is no evidence that 2 to 4 weeks of antibiotics is a cure for Lyme disease as indicated. In
fact, several animal model studies support the opposite. Lyme disease can persist as an active
infection, even beyond 3 months of antibiotics.
The term Post Lyme Disease Syndrome is only a hypothesis. Why? No one to date has been
able to establish when it becomes “Post” Lyme Disease.
Dr. Labos indicates that because the infection cannot be found in the blood, it somehow indicates
a lack of infection. In reality, it has been known for years that the organism disseminates quickly
and easily out of the blood into other tissue.
Lyme Disease bacteria are showing up in the brain tissue of dementia patients in significant
percentages along with other spirochaetal bacteria. Lyme Disease is a spiral shaped bacteria
called Borrelia, a spirochaete, and is a cousin of syphilis. Lyme Disease is a borreliosis, caused
by many genotypes of the bacteria, not only that which the too narrow Canadian tests detect.
Older clinical trials, which were referred to in Dr. Labos’ article, have long since been debated
and shown to have serious design and methodology problems. They should not be used to
support any health care policy as they do not meet the quality requirements for strength of
evidence.
In testimony to federal government committees last year, Public Health Agency of Canada
executives acknowledged that cases were seriously “under-diagnosed” in Canada, not “overdiagnosed” as Dr. Labos stated. Those senior executives are on record stating the 682 cases that
were confirmed in 2013 are likely under-reported three fold, and that in 4.5 years from now we will
have between 10 and 20 thousand cases per year. The United States, in 2013, upped their
estimate from 30,000 to 300,000 cases per year, mostly in states that border Canada. Lyme
Disease is pandemic and Canadians must arm themselves with knowledge of prevention.
Our ticks in Canada, especially in Quebec, come in on migratory birds such as your friendly
robins, wrens finches, and sparrows in the tens of millions per season from the very highly
endemic states below us. Ticks carrying Lyme Disease are becoming established in regions
throughout Canada randomly.
Tens of thousands of people have benefited from longer-term antibiotics. Simply because
mainstream medicine to date has refused to fund transparent clinical trials in collaboration with
patient’s medical experts, it does not mean those tens of thousands of people’s stories are simply
anecdotal. A few hundred people with a similar story could be anecdotal, tens of thousands of
people are no longer anecdotal and aggressive study is required. Taxpayers deserve better in
Canada on the Lyme Disease research file.
The Canadian Lyme Disease Foundation through its Venture Grants program is funding research
in Canada. We are working in conjunction with the G. Magnotta Foundation for Vector Borne
Diseases to establish a research program using today’s most sophisticated science and
technology to study human tissue to identify Lyme Disease and other diseases in all forms of
human tissue.
Knowledge leads to prevention, and we all have the right to make ‘informed consent’ decisions
with our doctor derived from accurate information. A negative Canadian test for Lyme absolutely
cannot confirm you do not have Lyme Disease and you may not be cured with 4 weeks of
antibiotics. Lyme Disease remains a clinical diagnosis based upon symptoms and history.