TICK PARALYSIS

Tick paralysis is an appropriately albeit unoriginally named form of ascending paralysis that's been impacting residents of the southern BC Interior since at least as far back as the late nineteenth century and potentially even farther back than that.

ANAPLASMOSIS

In the decade or so that I’ve been covering tick-borne illnesses, I’ve heard a lot about co-infecting organisms, which are broadly defined as pathogens that can be transmitted to humans (or animals) along with Lyme bacteria when someone is bitten by a blacklegged tick. By far the most common ones I hear about are babesia, bartonella, and Borrelia miyamotoi although it remains unclear what percentage of Lyme disease patients are contracting these infections in Canada.

BABESIOSIS

Babesiosis is a relatively new tick-borne illness in Canada that's really only just started to earn its way into the mainstream news. And yet, like Lyme disease and anaplasmosis, babesiosis cases are already on the rise in this country and are expected to escalate for many decades still to come.

POWASSAN VIRUS ENCEPHALITIS

I’ve been asked about Powassan virus (POWV) a lot in recent months, which is a bit odd since it can sometimes be difficult to get Canadians to recognize the presence of any tick-borne pathogens in this country, let alone one that’s rather obscure. I believe I can thank the media for the sudden rise in awareness of POWV. And while you’ll never catch me arguing that awareness is a bad thing, it tends to be more useful when it comes with the proper context. So let’s give it one.

ROCKY MOUNTAIN SPOTTED FEVER

It’s widely acknowledged that Lyme disease risk varies from one region to the next, but what’s not as well recognized is that a person’s chances of contracting non-Lyme tick-borne infections can also vary greatly between regions.

Rocky Mountain spotted fever (RMSF) tends to get little press in eastern Canada, largely because it’s extremely rare for a case to occur outside of the three western provinces. But if you happen to live in Saskatchewan, Alberta, or BC (or live anywhere in the rest of Canada and have extremely poor luck), RMSF is worth knowing about.

TULAREMIA

Tularemia, also known as rabbit fever, is a plague-like illness that was first documented in Tulare, California in 1911. We know little about tularemia in Canada except that it appears to be rare in this country. The first known Canadian case was recorded in Timmins, Ontario in 1930, and the disease is considered to be endemic in Central and Western Canada, less so in the east.

LYME DISEASE

Lyme disease is a complex multi-system inflammatory illness that's caused by the bite of a tick infected with one of several closely related species of borrelia bacteria, including Borrelia burgdorferi which is responsible for the majority of cases in Canada. Lyme disease is, by far, the most common tick-borne illness in Canada and is pretty much the only one most Canadians can name.

That said, our understanding of Lyme disease in Canada is in its infancy and, much to the frustration of a great many patients, the unknowns far outweigh the knowns.

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