Genavieve is one of a growing number of Australians suffering from Lyme disease, a condition the Australian medical system insists does not exist in our country.
She was five when she was bitten by a tick on Sydney’s northern beaches in September 2012. A week later she developed a rash and flu-like symptoms and two weeks after that she began experiencing severe burning pain in her feet.
Nine months after the initial bite, she woke up one morning and couldn’t see anything, she tells Kidspot.
In the years since she has suffered several bouts of blindness and periods of being confined to a wheelchair because her limbs are so painful.
Two Australian tests pronounced she did not have Lyme disease but an American test in May 2014 came back positive.
Lyme disease is well recognised in the US and Europe. It is a bacterial disease caused by an organism called Borrelia, which can be transmitted via infected ticks.
The Royal College of Pathologists of Australia claim Borrelia doesn’t exist in Australia because standard testing has not been able to identify the bacteria in ticks here. But Australian laboratories only test for the type of Borrelia commonly found in the US.
A 2014 Australian Women’s Weekly investigation by Professor Kerryn Phelps found that practitioners in Australia had found Borrelia in Australian ticks and in the blood of people who had been bitten by them – people who had never left the country and so couldn’t have picked up the infection overseas.
“This is an infectious disease in epidemic proportions,” one Australian expert, Dr Richard Schloeffel, told Kerryn. “Patients have been yelled at and told they have mental illness, told they have conversion reactions or, if they are parents, suspected of Munchausen’s by proxy. The evidence is staring them in the face. This is an emerging illness.”
“There are three labs in three different countries doing different types of tests and coming up with the same conclusions. Borrelia is here,” Jenny Burke of Australian Biologics Laboratory added.
A senate inquiry is currently being held into the existence of Lyme disease in Australia. Submissions for the inquiry must be received by March 31. A report will be released in June. For more information, visit the inquiry’s submission site.
