The latest figures for the second quarter of 2016 of laboratory confirmed Lyme disease:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/546883/hpr2616.pdf

For comparison here’s the previous quarter’s figures:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/523442/hpr1716_zoos2.pdf

Probably no surprise given that it’s mostly warm and wet all the time. Seems like years since we’ve had a proper cold winter here in the south.

3rd quarter 2016 figures of laboratory confirmed Lyme disease, for easy reference pages 1 and 3.

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/568223/hpr3916_zoos.pdf

That’s a big increase on last year, isn’t it? A genuine increase, or better diagnosis?

Either way, I’m staying away from the South East . . .

Diagnosis I’d say. The declared rates in the Rhine valley are much higher in Germany than France but there’s only a river between them.

Esme – testing only has around 50% accuracy and doesn’t carry a simple positive or negative result. Definitely stay away from the South East if you’re middle-aged!

More people are being tested (?) NHS finally taking the issue somewhat seriously

I wonder what the Scottish numbers would be like. ISTR there was a campaign to make LD notifiable, but it failed.

And then there are co-infections.

Ermahgerd the lymeapocalypse.

Definitely stay away from the South East if you’re middle-aged!

Better stay away from beef as well, vcjd still kills about 100 people a year 😀 not to mention all the carriers…passing it on in via blood donations 😀

I hope you idiots never visit a tropical country.

Tom – a polite request for you to pi$$ off from Lyme threads. Thanks.

I had a mild panic but a quick web search suggests prognosis looks pretty good for LD and post infectious LD.

That leaves chronic LD and the detail of that seems to be anyone’s guess.

The prognosis is great, barely anyone dies from it – 20 odd directly from the disease in 10 years in the States.

They even had a vaccine until the nutjobs (coincidentally the ones that usually think they have chronic lyme), managed to get it withdrawn from the market.

Sorry CG, I find you all utterly hilarious – wait until you’ve had Dengue – it’ll blow your minds.

There’s a saying, if you haven’t got anything nice to say, say nothing at all.

My cousin had Dengue, that’s really nasty

More people are being tested (?) NHS finally taking the issue somewhat seriously

Jambalaya – I don’t know but would be good to hear from the docs of this Parish. Have recently told my Scottish GP who said she was happy to organise any testing if I wanted it, most reassuring. Guessing she’s pretty clued up from working in Scotland.

I wonder what the Scottish numbers would be like. ISTR there was a campaign to make LD notifiable, but it failed.

And then there are co-infections.

slowoldgit – Was that a Scottish campaign or UK wide? Any idea why it failed?

The only person I’ve known to have chronic Lyme disease didn’t die of it, he died of suicide. But as a farmer he could no longer work, had chronic pain, various disabilities, had undergone surgery on tendons before final diagnosis – he put himself out of his misery.

Very sad Edukator. 🙁

The declared rates in the Rhine valley are much higher in Germany than France but there’s only a river between them.

Why is that do you think?

Obviously ticks don’t like garlic 😉

c_g, it was a while ago and I forget the details, sorry. It may have been one of they internet petition thingies.

Very sad, especially as he gave us access to his land for MTBing and it’s now been closed off. (just slightly black humour)

I think that Lyme disease has been under diagnosed until very recently in France, I expect the French figures to catch up the German ones as awareness and more rigorous testing increases.

Nothing at all to do with Lyme … a powerful TED presentation from Liverpool (only 18 minutes long) by Dr Rangan Chatterjee, a British GP who featured in a BBC series earlier this year.

Two new blog posts from John Caudwell, founder of CaudwellLyme charity.

Estimated 45,000 new UK cases of Lyme a year:

https://caudwelllyme.com/2016/11/24/estimated-45000-new-uk-cases-of-lyme-disease-a-year/

What happens to the 6,000 undiagnosed Lyme patients:

https://caudwelllyme.com/2016/11/28/what-happens-to-the-6000-undiagnosed-lyme-patients/

Thanks

How do I best go about arranging a test? Are most GP’s open to this these days?

4th quarter figures for lab confirmed Lyme disease:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/591267/hpr0617_zoos.pdf

I know you lot love a conspiracy theory and bullshit bingo. So here goes Plum Island and Tick Project 101, makes yeh tink so it does.

This is a good idea – NHS tick and Lyme disease awareness sessions for the public:

http://www.wihb.scot.nhs.uk/news/item/558-public-event-ticks-and-lyme-disease-awareness-sessions?platform=hootsuite

That’s a good idea, what concerns me is that many people who spend leisure time cycling/walking etc don’t live in the areas they play in. We need a more coordinated public education program.
At least it’s a start

Honestly CG, do you go out of your way to reference people with utterly dire reputations? You just linked to a website that references a likely fraudulent paper on morgellons by Stricker – a man done and infamous for (even getting himself in the NYT back in the 1990s) for academic misconduct and fraud. This was at the height of aids denialism – wonder if he was in Dusbergs camp at the time.

Truth is Tom that you find fault with anything I post or link to, as well as others, relating to health matters. You’re clearly an intelligent bloke but what you fail to do every single time is to open your mind and ears to those who’ve real world experience and a different viewpoint to you.

I would have that thought that one of the prerequisites for working in a scientific environment is to have an enquiring mind alongside being able to critically evaluate text and data. You have an unfailing belief that science is always right, look at who stands to gain financially then answer the question again.

Finally, just to wind you up 😉 I did see the film “Vaxxed”, having been following the efforts of Robert F Kennedy Jr and Brian Hooker. A CDC whistleblower, who’d a thought it.

Peace
xx

Meantime, the UHI (University of Highlands & Islands) has been busy participating in a project on Tom’s disease that doesn’t exist.

http://www.checkforticks.org.uk/

Quite a bit being done up here to raise awareness and promote safety in the outdoors. Knowing several folk who have suffered, I can confirm that it’s both vile and preventable.

That’s really good, like the way that local communities were involved yet mindful not to put them off from venturing outdoors. I think the rest of the UK could learn a lot from that approach.

Thank you for bringing it to our attention highlandman. 🙂

Finally, just to wind you up I did see the film “Vaxxed”, having been following the efforts of Robert F Kennedy Jr and Brian Hooker. A CDC whistleblower, who’d a thought it.

You mean this guy?

http://www.snopes.com/medical/disease/cdcwhistleblower.asp

This is up there with area 51 conspiracory rubbish, sorry CG.

Having an open mind does’t mean taking the word of actual fraudsters like Sticker over the rest of the scientific community, it puts you in the same category as Trump supporters. You seem to subscribe to every alternative pseudo theory just because it runs against mainstream scientific consensus.

Meantime, the UHI (University of Highlands & Islands) has been busy participating in a project on Tom’s disease that doesn’t exist.

Don’t think anyone said it didn’t exist:

Tom_W1987 – Member
The prognosis is great, barely anyone dies from it – 20 odd directly from the disease in 10 years in the States.

The bit there is doubt about is chronic Lyme disease, which seems to attract a lot of alternative medicine practicioners.

Sorry CG, I find you all utterly hilarious – wait until you’ve had Dengue – it’ll blow your minds.

Tom. This smug superiority thing is a little tired now. Please just give it a rest. I’d have to be convinced you are not one of the good guys in real life – so please let a little of what I’d suspect is Real World Tom (RWT) show through.

J

Quite probably nothing for us here in the UK to worry about, or in Europe, but there seem to be worrying signs of an increase in the numbers of new, different tick-borne diseases in North America:
http://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2017/03/11/519518318/beyond-lyme-new-tick-borne-diseases-on-the-rise-in-u-s
There’s one in particular, Powassan, that seems to cause serious problems involving swelling in the brain, leading to coma, and in one case, death.

What makes Powassan so dangerous is that it attacks the brain, making it swell up. In about 10 percent of cases, Powassan is deadly. And if you do recover, you have about a 50 percent chance of permanent neurological damage.

Very difficult to really see just how widespread these diseases are, or how ‘new’ they are, it may be that they’ve been around for a long time in more remote areas, and are only now showing up in the human population due to population growth and expansion into more rural areas, along with people looking for quieter places to vacation.
I’m sure Tom’ll be along in a moment to point, sneer and go ‘nya nya nya’…

I wouldn’t sneer at an emerging disease that actually kills people Countzero, but I will sneer at hack researchers, fake doctors and what at effectively amounts to a collective sneer from conspiracy and alt-medicine types – towards the medical fraternity.

There’s all sorts of zoonotic diseases out there, that could potentially tear through humanity – considering the vector – tick borne diseases aren’t one of them yet though.