By Fred Diamond

When I was interviewing experts for my book “Love, Hope, Lyme: What Family Members, Partners, and Friends Who Love a Chronic Lyme Survivor Need to Know,” I was surprised to find so many people around the globe to speak with.

Did you know that Lyme disease is endemic across the European continent?

On this week’s Love, Hope, Lyme podcast, I was fortunate to interview Dr. Krzysztof Majdylo. He’s the chief doctor at the St. Luke’s Center in Gdańsk, Poland.

We discussed many of the challenges his patients face when battling the disease.

Is there Lyme disease in Poland?

Dr. Majdyło said, “Doctors should not say Lyme is not here. When I hear this comment, I make the joke, does the Lyme bacteria really know about that, because it’s everywhere. There are many endemic places in Europe, such as Scandinavia, south of Europe, Italy, and even Spain. The bacteria travels. We cannot say that there is a place where there is no Lyme. It could be anywhere.”

I asked: what about Poland?

He answered, “We believe that there are one million Lyme patients in Poland [out of a population of 38 million]. Of course, most of them don’t know that Lyme is a cause of the problems.

“There’s a wide range. Some of them have many symptoms and multiple diagnoses. Some of them have few symptoms. Some of them are asymptomatic. Only after perhaps contracting some other disease, or vaccination, or trauma, or car accident, do they realize that something is changing.

“For example, when many women give birth to the child, and there’s some problem with child, we see that it’s congenital Lyme and mother had no understanding that something was wrong.

“With Lyme, we could have all the symptoms that you can just imagine. I would say nothing is typical. The characteristic of Lyme is that it’s not characteristic. It’s a great pretender. It can really pretend multiple diseases. That’s why sometimes we have the diagnosis of multiple sclerosis (MS), or Parkinson’s, or Alzheimer’s disease, or some other diseases. But if we really dig down and we really look what’s the reason for the disease, we could find spirochetes, we could find Lyme disease.”

Neurological symptoms are prevalent

Dr. Majdylo said the major symptoms he sees in Europe are neurological.

“Many of my patients have headaches. They don’t remember. They cannot focus. Many of them have the other problems, such as leg or hand paralysis, that could be a real problem, but that they are disabled by the disease because of the neurological,” he said.

“Sometimes we do not associate neurological symptoms as neurological, because we have three nervous systems. In addition to the central brain and peripheral nerves, there is also the autonomous nervous system responsible for the gut, stomach, heart, and the circulation system. Many people do not think that their issues are neurological, but they are.”

Political issues hinder care

Dr. Majdylo said that there are also political issues at play with Lyme treatment.

“The problem is that many doctors, they know how to treat, but they do not want to do that officially because they are afraid. The politicians don’t like it [treating Lyme]. It’s all the time problematic,” he said.

“Even recently, we had some challenges here in Poland. Some of my medical doctor colleagues said it was just too much for them. It was too hard, too emotional. Some of them resigned from treating Lyme because it’s really a tough time for many doctors.”

On the Love, Hope, Lyme podcast, he went into more detail about the challenges facing doctors in Poland, and why he has chosen to continue treating people with Lyme disease.

He said, “We really need to have a revolution in healthcare system. Not many politicians want to change everything. They just prefer to say something publicly which does not require any action. I really believe that for every budget, if you invest in good diagnostic of Lyme, you will save a lot of money. Not only you will save the problems that people have, the suffering, the pain, but you will also save money. But you will save after a couple of years, after a long period of time. But politicians only think in a distance of next election, not for decades in the future.”

He concluded, “I believe there will be a breakthrough. I cannot imagine a situation where we just continue with the same nonsense in many countries.”

Click here to listen to all episodes of the Love, Hope, Lyme Podcast or on YouTube.

Fred Diamond is based in Fairfax, Virginia and can be contacted via Facebook. His popular book, “Love, Hope, Lyme: What Family Members, Partners, and Friends Who Love a Chronic Lyme Survivor Need to Know” is available on Amazon. The e-version of the book is always free to Lyme survivors. PM Fred on Facebook for your copy.