Image Credit: CFJC Today

By Adam Donnelly

TICK-BORNE ILLNESS

Kamloops woman believes Lyme disease more prevalent than doctors know

Nov 5, 2019 | 5:03 PM

KAMLOOPS — Lyme disease is a tricky subject. If you speak with health care professionals, it’s relatively rare in British Columbia, affecting between 10 and 30 individuals per year. However, when you talk with someone who has the disease, just getting a diagnosis can take years of self-advocacy.

On Tuesday, one of BC’s leading experts on tick-borne illnesses was in Kamloops speaking to local physicians. According to Dr. Muhammad Morshed of the BC Centre for Disease Control, there’s no doubt that certain ticks in our province carry the bacteria that causes Lyme disease.

Image Credit: CFJC Today

“If someone were to say ‘I have Lyme disease,’ [doctors] would say, ‘You don’t have Lyme disease, there’s no Lyme disease in BC.’ That is totally, totally wrong,” Dr. Morshed tells CFJC Today. “We do have Lyme disease in BC, but the number is low.”

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However, if you ask someone who has Lyme disease, the number of people infected should be significantly higher. Marnie Freeman believes she contracted Lyme disease a decade ago. She was only able to confirm that diagnosis in January 2019, thanks to her naturopath and a blood test sent to Germany.

“The Canadian lab test for Lyme disease has proven to be inadequate,” Freeman says. “There are a large number of people who have taken the Canadian test and have received a false negative.”

Of the 1,000 cases of Lyme disease reported in Canada each year, only around 10-to-30 occur in BC. Dr. Morshed estimates more than half of those reported occur outside of the province.

“Half of them we see are travel related. So people go to Europe, people go to [the] U.S., and they bring the disease back with them,” Dr. Morshed says. “In B.C., we have five-to-15 cases per year that happen from B.C.”

Freeman’s symptoms were manageable for the first five years but got significantly worse. She’s been undergoing treatment with antibiotics since February but has been paying out of her own pocket.

“It’s expensive,” Freeman says. “Nothing is really covered. My healthcare costs are in excess of $1,200 a month to fight this disease.”

Marnie Freeman (Image Credit: CFJC Today)

Freeman says for those who have an undiagnosed case of Lyme disease, knowledge and self-advocacy are the keys to getting the diagnosis and the treatment patients need.

“They’re not looking for Lyme disease. It’s not on their radar,” she explains. “You really need to be your own doctor, in a sense and find out what else is out there for care right now. Because it’s not going to change overnight.”

Marnie Freeman may disagree with Dr. Morshed on the prevalence of the disease throughout B.C. However, they both agree that preventing tick bites is key to ensuring Lyme disease doesn’t spread.