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Fun fact: The disease is named for Lyme, Connecticut, USA. That's where it was first identified as a unique condition.
It's common enough in the northeast and north-central US that my public schools taught everyone basic prevention and symptoms as part of the regular curriculum.
I live in the US, and I had Lyme when I was a teenager. Simple blood test confirmed it, I was prescribed antibiotics and it cleared up nearly instantly. No one told me it didn't exist.
Similar experience for me. Developed the typical bullseye rash on my calf after being bit and went to the doctor. He didn't even bother with tests to confirm, just prescribed me antibiotics based on the rash alone and it cleared up. Was sick and tired for a few days and that was that.
In the US it's not so much about lyme disease being denied as it is about chronic lyme disease being denied. People who catch the disease sometimes experience long term symptoms that don't go away after the initial treatment which can be debilitating.
That said the "denial" doesn't come from the medical establishment (our CDC has a page talking about it that's pretty informative), it comes from insurers who refuse to cover long term treatments and doctors who aren't up to date.
The same discussion with long covid where I live. There’s ‘no proof’ that it can be chronic so government denies most requests for disability assistance. They even tried to change the name to ‘post covid’ to try to obscure the chronic aspect that’s implied from the word ‘long’.
Yes, it's recognized in the US. Not always quickly and accurately, I've known several people who lived with it for years before a doctor finally figured it out.
(Pure personal anecdotal, not data-backed) I suspect a generation of doctors were trained only to look for a red rash in the shape of a bullseye target on the patient's skin and not to run blood tests until a bullseye is seen. People with Lyme don't always get the bullseye rash or sometimes it's in an area not easy to detect it (on scalp, covered in hair). Hopefully there continues to be better awareness and diagnostics.
It's not super common where I live (middle of the US). I've been bitten by ticks many times but never contracted Lyme. My state advises saving the tick for 30 days after it bites you. If you have any symptoms, your doctor's office can arrange to have it tested. If it tests positive, you get tested and then treated if needed and also the an official report goes to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), which is a national-level public health agency.
Unfortunately, the CDC is under the Department of Health and Human Services, which is now run by RFK Jr. I wouldn't be surprised if that moron were to advise tanning one's butthole as treatment for Lyme.
Do you have an article about the case you're talking about?
There is a difference between Lyme disease and chronic Lyme disease. My guess is that this case has something to do with that difference.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyme_disease
Lyme disease, also known as Lyme borreliosis, is a tick-borne disease caused by species of Borrelia bacteria, transmitted by blood-feeding ticks in the genus Ixodes.[4][9][10] It is the most common disease spread by ticks in the Northern Hemisphere.[11][8] Infections are most common in the spring and early summer.[4] Infection is treatable with antibiotics. Most treated patients experience a full recovery. For some patients recovery may not be immediate or complete, resulting in long-term effects.[12] Early detection and prompt treatment are associated with more favorable outcomes.[13]
Diagnosis is based on a combination of symptoms, history of tick exposure, and possibly testing for specific antibodies in the blood
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronic_Lyme_disease
Despite numerous studies, there is no evidence that symptoms associated with CLD are caused by any persistent infection.[4] The symptoms attributed to chronic Lyme are in many cases likely due to fibromyalgia or chronic fatigue syndrome.[5][6] Fibromyalgia can be triggered by an infection, and antibiotics are not a safe or effective treatment for post-infectious fibromyalgia.[7] Fatigue, joint and muscle pain are also experienced by a minority of people following antibiotic treatment for Lyme disease.[3]
A number of alternative health products are promoted for chronic Lyme disease,[8] of which possibly the most controversial and harmful is long-term antibiotic therapy, particularly intravenous antibiotics.[9][10] Recognised authorities advise against long-term antibiotic treatment for Lyme disease, even where some symptoms persist post-treatment.[11][12][13]
In the United States, after disciplinary proceedings by state medical licensing boards, a subculture of "Lyme literate" physicians has successfully lobbied for specific legal protections, exempting them from the standard of care and science-based treatment guidelines. Such legislation has been criticised as an example of "legislative alchemy", the process whereby pseudomedicine is legislated into practice.[14][15][16] Some doctors view the promotion of chronic Lyme disease as an example of health fraud.[17]
Chronic Lyme disease is distinct from untreated late-stage Lyme disease, which can cause arthritis, peripheral neuropathy and/or encephalomyelitis. Chronic Lyme disease is also distinct from post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome (PTLDS) when symptoms linger after standard antibiotic treatments.[18][19] PTLDS is estimated to occur in less than 5% of people who had Lyme disease and were treated.[20] In contrast to these recognized medical conditions, the promotion of chronic Lyme disease has been accused of being health fraud.[17] In many cases there is no objective evidence that people who believe they have chronic Lyme have ever been infected with Lyme disease: standard diagnostic tests for infection are often negative.[2][21]
So they don't explicitly mention "chronic" Lyme disease in the video, and I couldn't find any other articles from looking up the names mentioned, but it does sound like that's what is being talked about here.
What I would be curious about is if these patients got the antibody test. If they didn't, that seems like a relatively easy policy fix. Bacteria can spread to other countries and go undetected, and the test isn't that invasive compared to the peace of mind it would give patients. Same
However if they did get the test and it came back negative, then it gets more complicated. Doctors don't want to put someone on treatment for something that can't be detected. Every medication has side effects and you would end up harming someone without evidence of a benefit. Where it gets messy is when people go for "diagnosis" or "treatment" abroad.
I did actually find this from last October
Overview
The Australian Government appreciates the opportunity to respond to the Senate
Community Affairs References Committee list of recommendations on the Access to
diagnosis and treatment for people in Australia with tick-borne diseases. The Government
thanks the Committee and the various stakeholders for their valuable and thoughtful input
to the Inquiry.
The Government acknowledges the concerns of patients who are facing issues accessing
diagnosis and treatment with tick-borne illnesses. In early 2013, the Department of Health,
Disability and Ageing began engaging with patients, medical practitioners, and advocacy
groups to discuss concerns about Lyme disease. In 2016, the department engaged and
addressed the Senate Inquiry recommendations into Growing evidence of an emerging tick-
borne disease that causes a Lyme-like illness (2016 Inquiry) through a range of measures
such as public education materials, research and guidance for medical practitioners. As a
result, the department has gained a deeper appreciation and growing concern for those
Australians experiencing issues relating to tick-borne diseases.
This response addresses the specific recommendations raised in the current Senate
Committee's Report. The Government remains open-minded about the cause of the various
complexes which manifest as a range of chronic debilitating symptoms. The best outcome
for patients and health practitioners is to not draw conclusions based on poor levels of
evidence, but to consider each patient thoroughly in a multidisciplinary medical approach
that makes the best use of clinical expertise and available diagnostic skills and technology.
The Government remains engaged with the patient and medical community to continue to
find, share and understand the evidence associated with tick-borne diseases. The
Government hopes its continued work with clinical medicine and research communities will
result in answers and relief for patients and their families
I’m pretty sure it’s recognized it’s well discussed when talking about ticks here.
I watched the news segment linked in here and I'm neither a doctor, nor a healthcare administrator, nor an Aussie: this does sound rather daft. You could contract the disease while being abroad even if all Aussie ticks were proven to be clean. Which is at least in doubt based on two local cases they interviewed. I'm guessing this is a very small number of people getting royally screwed by the system.
On a semi-serious note, would the Australian healthcare system also refuse to treat a person with Ebola based on the fact that the virus is known to be of African origin?
My dad got lyme's disease when I was a kid. Mother diagnosed it using our girl scout handbook. It was taken care of by doctors after that so I'm guessing they agreed?
Reminds me of when i learned about that nasty Sardinian maggot cheese and the wiki has a throwaway line about "no cases of pseudomyiasis (when maggots survive your digestive system and Cause Problems) has been linked to the cheese" and someone used that to tell me that it's safe and it's like. The same species has been known to cause cases. Eating them on a fucking nasty cheese isn't going to magically make that not happen! Just because there hasn't been a nerd paid to do a study to establish a link doesn't mean it's safe to eat the maggots!