To my knowledge there has been very little research into tick-borne disease here in the Central Interior of BC. Few doctors have been trained to diagnose or treat Lyme borreliosis; our provincial lab has no money for research because those who divide up the available health care money have not set any aside for research. Thus a circle of denial for those who believe they suffer from Lyme disease has been set up; they have been made the researchers.

With regard to the latest emerging infectious disease; The West Nile Virus, we have learned to watch for dead birds as a healthy animal population begets a healthy human population.

Similarly with Lyme borreliosis some feel we should be watching the animals. I am 55 and as a youngster can remember many rabbits in the area. Alton Myers letter shows the extent of hare populations in the 20's and 30's. Today as I look at these areas there is the odd rabbit but they do not seem to be breeding in areas that appear to have fairly good habitat that has not changed that much since I was a kid. Just had a chat with Alton who has a few years on me. He agreed this has also been his observation.

Our Provincial Lab has documented Lyme disease in rabbit ticks. If it were not for Aids, Lyme disease would be the most complex disease documented since syphilis.

February 27, 2005. It is now generally thought that diagnosed cases per year of Lyme disease has surpassed aids in North America.

When others and I became ill in the mid 80's it was after the cyclic hare die-off. It makes sense to me that if an infectious disease were introduced to a rapidly rebuilding hare population it would spread rapidly in localized areas. This type of die-off should not be confused with the well-documented cyclic hare die-off as in the past the hares rebuilt rapidly. As I see it, the big problem here in the Central Interior in the "discovery" of this disease is that the infection is not common from year to year. In the 80's there were several persons with the symptoms of Lyme disease and then in the 90"s the disease disappeared along with the rabbits. There is an enigma here; Lyme disease is not normally thought to kill its victims. This has gone unnoticed as we do not fully understand that disease can cause symptoms that we just look upon as normal. We are good at accepting and not understanding.

It is easy to identify areas where the rabbit populations have been severely depleted since the 80's; to identify disease is much more difficult. This is where I need help from people living in rural areas where the rabbits have all but disappeared since the 80's. If anyone else has noticed a disappearance of rabbits in a relatively small area along with persons becoming ill, I am interested in hearing from you. Please e-mail Ron. This is a difficult disease to recognize as it has so many symptoms. Unexplained suicides, arthritic, neurologic, cardiac complications and serious infections should all be suspect. In the untreated, a form of dementia may be seen.

If the initial symptoms are recognized the disease is more easily treatable, if missed, the disease will put the patient on the medical merry-go-round at an unnecessary cost to the health care system.

To the Editor and residents of Fraser Lake and area.

Thank you for printing May is Lyme Awareness Month that was written by Danette MacDonald and co-written by several concerned Lyme patients.

Although Lyme disease is not routinely taken into consideration when evaluating a patient's health problems, BCCDC health authorities now believe that Lyme disease carrying ticks may be present throughout the province.

I have been studying and collecting information on this disease for 18 years. As yet I have not found any Lyme disease ticks on our numerous deer. I now believe there was an outbreak of this disease in our area in the 80's which killed the local rabbits and was passed to humans. At that time we did not have the knowledge on how serious this disease can be. It is hard for the patient to understand how one disease can have so many varied symptoms, how you can be so sick and doctors cannot give you a diagnosis. As a result, people are misdiagnosed and have no idea that they may have Lyme disease because of the fact that it can imitate so many other diseases. This is a disease that affects persons differently, some get very sick, and some have minor symptoms at onset and then have the disease flare up years later due to unknown reasons that may include some form of trauma. This is a disease that can at least cause attempted suicide because of the pain and mental confusion.

This disease may present with cardiac problems, neurological problems and several forms of arthritis. Although not all Lyme patients are affected by arthritis, I was not the only one that suffered a Sudden Onset of Osteoarthritis. If there are others that have suffered this malady please contact me so we can pool our knowledge and learn more about this insidious disease.

It is forecast that we may see cases of the West Nile Virus in BC this summer. It appears that the early symptoms of West Nile are similar to Lyme disease with the exception of the rash and morbidity. Both diseases can be vectored by birds and transmitted by biting insects.

I and several other patients have gathered information about this disease and put it in one place for persons to peruse. lymeinbc.cjb.net. If you do not have a computer the staff at you local library will be happy to help you to access this information.

Sincerely,

Ron Gerhardi

June 2003

There are areas in the province with healthy hare populations, will these populations become seriously impacted in the future, will persons become seriously ill and perhaps some die who have had exposure to these specific areas?

What really is this disease that we call Lyme disease? There are many that maintain that Lyme disease is rare in BC, they have the statistics to back this up. Are we similar to Montana and have a mystery illness here in the central interior? Are we part of a bigger pandemic?

It is my thought that the biggest threat to the recognition of emerging diseases and to the future of our health care system are doctors who do not listen to patients and know more about how the patient feels than the patient.

A Canadian dictum our health care system should take to heart.

January 2004

On December 27th, 2003 I realized that West Nile Virus or a similar disease could have caused the snowshoe hare and the porcupine to become scarce in the area where I and others became ill.

Please see:- West Nile Virus

January 2005

I now realize that Brucellosis as a co-infection of Lyme disease answers most of the questions that have puzzled me over the last two decades. Is this possible?

Please see:- Brucellosis

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