More biological evidence of climate change: deer ticks (Ixodes scapularis) carrying the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi, which causes Lyme disease, have gained a foothold in Canada according to health officials. Normally, the ticks transported by migrating birds die out in Canada's cold winters. Global warming has changed that, and significant numbers of Canadian are becoming seriously ill from infected tick bites.According to Canada's monitoring, the number of confirmed lyme cases has jumped six fold from 144 in 2009 to 987 in 2016. Lyme in not easy to diagnose. The protocol requires two tests, one to confirm the production of relevant antibodies by the body, and the second to confirm the presence of proteins unique to the bacterium. The tests are imperfect too, leading false negatives. To further complicate the testing the bacteria carry a number of pathogens such as anaplasma and the parasite, babesia. These produce co-infections not detected by standard testing. Biologists in Manitoba estimate that 65% of deer ticks there are carrying lyme disease bacteria and/or one of the two other pathogens. Unfamiliar with the disease, some practitioners are turning to profit-making US labs where lyme is common in the northeast. [map below] That is potentially a mistake, too. A review of studies published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal in 2015 showed that some analyses of U.S. specialty labs had false-positive rates ranging from 2.5 percent to as high as 25 percent. One lab showed false-positives in 57 percent of samples taken from a control group known to be Lyme-free.
Surrounding the problematic diagnosis, are issues with insurance coverage. Disability insurance companies in Canada often claim that chronic Lyme
disease does not exist, for example, so that they don’t have to pay
disability claims. At the same time, many insurance companies deny life insurance to potential clients who have had a Lyme disease diagnosis, says a Lyme disease researcher at University of Alberta.A French pharmaceutical firm is working on a vacine for lyme. A vaccine existed in the US, but it was withdrawn from the market in 2002 midst lawsuits over its side effects. Canada is going through what people in the northeast went through in the 1980's when chronic lymne disease was first being diagnosed. People who were asymptomatic when for years without treatment. Now, thanks to global warming the disease has spread to Canada.