NEWS: "B.C. dogs get better Lyme treatment than people"

In the British Columbia newspaper the Times Colonist, David Cubberly of the Canadian Lyme Disease Foundation says he hopes the Lyme treatment currently available to Canadian dogs will one day be made available to Canadian people.

From the Times Colonist:

B.C. dogs get better Lyme treatment than people

Because disease rarely detected in humans, infected often denied cure

By David Cubberly, Special to Times Colonist July 6, 2010

It’s astounding that a single Victoria veterinarian sees more Lyme disease in dogs yearly than are “confirmed” by the Centre for Disease Control for humans across B.C. (“Tests spot tick-borne disease in retriever,” June 26).

How can it be that we see only four to six cases a year of Lyme in humans if one vet sees a case a month of tick-borne disease in dogs (and most often Lyme)?

I hope the standard of care given Annie the retriever will one day be available to people in B.C. Right now it’s not. Annie’s vet suspected tick-borne illness, recognized the need to test for Lyme disease and knew enough to also test for other tick-borne illnesses.

Humans come to doctors with known symptoms of tick-borne illness, yet often face incomprehension or worse.