PE01662: Improve Treatment for Patients with Lyme Disease and Associated Tick-borne Diseases

3 in my family with Chronic Lyme lives devestated. We have spent a fortune. Research needed urgently to find a cure for what is an HIV like illness that causes immune suppression. This is a slow death for many and rapid for some. Non treatment and denial is a human rights violation

Katherine Brookhouse

23:22 on 28 Jun 2017

awful treatment and diagnois

ff

22:42 on 28 Jun 2017

I was failed by the NHS in spite of a very clear tick history. They chose to believe inadequate, not fit for purpose blood tests, in spite of me & my family informing them of the issues surrounding these tests. I contracted Lyme Disease whilst camping in the Scottish Highlands twenty three yrs ago. Previously I was a extremely fit, working mum to two young children. Doctors told me that I could not get Lyme Disease in the UK, I would have had to have visited America. I had not been out of the country! The two tier system is ridiculously outdated & misses many cases of genuine Lyme Disease. It is plagued by false negative results ensuring many hundreds go on to be misdiagnosed & mistreated, left disabled & chronically ill with no help, guidance or support system in place for them or their families..

K baldwyn

15:49 on 28 Jun 2017

Insect borne illness is a worldwide epidemic with many emerging consequences no county can continue to look away from. Please do the right thing and help all those who suffer the debilitating effects. God bless your efforts.

Jean Kudyba

15:47 on 28 Jun 2017

Dreadful disease. I know several people who suffer and have the most debilitating symptoms. It's dreadful the way Lyme patients are treated.

Annie Howarth

14:58 on 28 Jun 2017

More research, better GP training

Jim Bryce

11:26 on 28 Jun 2017

My husband has chronic Lyme disease and we are keen that testing and research is put at the top of the agenda. At the moment unless you have the bulls eye rash, or a positive blood test, you cannot get treatment. We know that one third of cases do not get a rash and that up to 75 percent of Elisa blood tests give a false negative. That results in a lot of people routinely being told "Its all your head" and having their lives ruined. Scotland leads the way in the UK by doing the "right thing" - please let us mark a new chapter and show the rest of world we are putting aside opinions, political or medical, and start tackling the problem of Lyme at its roots.

Polly Murray

12:26 on 27 Jun 2017

I have been aware of Lyme Disease for over 10 years. I have seen the characteristic bullseye rash on a friend who didn't have long term symptoms of the disease. However another friend didn't have the rash but has been having the symptoms of the disease for 5 years approximately. There needs to be more public awareness of the disease, how to avoid tics, what to do should you find a tic has bitten you, more GP and health professional training about treating the disease, more research in to effective treatments and more public education about how people's lives can be affected by Lyme's disease. I applaud this campaignto bring attention to the problems and issues to do with this disease whih can be so debilitating.

Jane Rubens

3:01 on 27 Jun 2017

My GPs know next to nothing about Lyme. My first diagnosis was while on holiday in Germany, from a tick bite received 3 weeks earlier from my own farm (Aberdeenshire). The second bout of Lyme was 2 years later, from another local tick bite. My GP was asking me what treatment they should give me! NHS tests for Lyme are notoriously inaccurate and need to be improved. Tick populations are exploding, and can be found in parks, gardens as well as in 'wild' places. The disease is debilitating, but with the correct treatment can be managed or put into remission. Let's make Scotland a world leader in Lyme identification and treatment!

Anne Taylor

18:50 on 26 Jun 2017

Lyme Disease needs to be recognised so those individuals can be treated.

Gwen Tooke

18:08 on 26 Jun 2017