LYME DISEASE IN AUSTRALIA

Lyme Disease has become a worldwide pandemic. This disease is being undiagnosed, misdiagnosed and under-diagnosed around the world. Australia is having a particularly severe problem with the government of Australia denying that Lyme disease even exists in Australia. For some reason the media skips around the severity of this issue and instead focuses on diseases which currently pose no real threat...such as Anthrax, West Nile Virus, SARS, Swine Flu, and even Ebola. Contrary to popular propaganda, acute disease that quickly results in death is not the greatest threat to society. Acute infectious disease is easy to recognize, track, and quarantine which enables health authorities to contain the spread of disease.

A more dangerous and diabolical scenario is........the complete denial of the presence or severity of an infectious disease which is not immediately lethal but that creates disability and further down the road can produce death. Officials have been quoted in government documents as saying that it is more effective to take down a country (destroying its economic fabric) through using disabling agents rather than microbes which quickly kill. It was stated that when a country experiences many disabled people ...it ties up many others in caring for these people and gradually destroys the economy. Drug companies benefit from misdiagnosing disease as autoimmune. So-called autoimmune diseases usually have no known definitive tests, causes or cures....only symptomatic treatments. When only treating the symptoms of disease...the cause of the disease condition goes untreated, simmers and creates more disease in the patient's body, and passes through the population unchecked...which is exactly what is happening. More chronic illness equals more profits for drug companies and more control by governments.

Please read the article below to discover that the Lyme disease pandemic is not just being denied in the United States and Canada but it is reported that Australia is experiencing an even more severe denial and lack of treatment. Citizens are being told that there is no such thing as Lyme disease in Australia despite patients who have positive Lyme serology and DNA tests. Instead of being treated for Lyme disease with antibiotics, citizens are receiving more dangerous drugs which only treat the symptoms of disease labels such as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Fibromyalgia, M.S, Lupus, Parkinson's and many more.........

A False Perception that Lyme Disease is a "Minor Disease".

Recently the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) updated their official Lyme disease statistics. The old statistics indicating that  there are 30,000 new cases of Lyme disease in the US every year have been replaced by a 10 fold higher figure of 300,000 new cases every year. Some health professionals consider that this figure could be too low by a factor of 10.

Taking the figure of 300,000 diagnosed, this represents about 0.1% of the US

population. In comparison, 0.1% of the Australian population (22m) is approximately 22,000. Of course this is an annual diagnosis figure, so over 10 years it equates to about 220,000 new Lyme disease diagnoses.

There are a number of overseas studies showing that the frequency of serum samples positive for Lyme disease using commercial antibody tests is about 3%. This equates to 660,000 Australians possibly having had contact with Lyme disease organisms.

The causative organism responsible for Lyme disease is generally considered to be a member of the Borrelia bacterial family. Borrelia bacteria were first identified in 1959 in Australia by the CSIRO, and there have been other positive reports since that time. The Queensland Health Department recognized Lyme disease in Australia until the early 1990s. Then mysteriously their policy was revised. Around this time the NSW Health Department provided advice that Lyme disease could not be detected in Australian ticks. It has become the dogma in the psyche of the Australian medical system that Lyme disease does not exist in Australia.

Against this backdrop there have been many Australians diagnosed with Lyme disease by serology tests. Estimates would be around 2,000 positive tests in the last 1-2 years. This means that hundreds of thousands have not even had Lyme tests! Now, rather than using antibody tests it is possible to use DNA tests that specifically identify the bacterial species. Identification of Lyme disease in Australia has been identified by these DNA tests. Thus reputed claims attributed to the Chief Medical Officer and others that there is no evidence for Lyme disease in Australia are scientifically incorrect.

Incorrect claims by medical overseers may be considered unethical. These individuals have moral and legal obligations to present scientifically accurate information to patients.

A bill presented in the NSW Parliament by the Greens Party recognizing Lyme disease in Australia was defeated by the Liberal/National and Labor parties. This must rank as one of the most disgraceful and ignorant acts in Australian history and shames these major parties. Considering the enquiry into childhood abuse then there is an even stronger case for a Royal Commission into the mishandling of Lyme disease, and sufferers of medical negligence should be able to provide their stories. Here again the conspiracy of silence has condemned many innocent Australians, and likewise the irresponsible authorities have chosen to do nothing.

The Australian Government has sacrificed thousands of Australians at Gallipoli, the Somme, Singapore, Vietnam, Iraq and Iran, and celebrates these "achievements'. To this can be added the sacrifice of thousands of Lyme disease sufferers (and other misdiagnosed people). Money is being poured into warplanes ($20-30 billion), Anzac celebrations ($300-600 million) and even a race around the Albert Park duck pond ($30 -50 per year). The amount spent on Lyme disease is a big fat zero. At this point the $6

levy for doctor visits can be considered a fee for non-diagnosis and misdiagnosis of hundreds of thousands of Australians.

A person from New Zealand was bitten by a koala at an Australian nature park. This person subsequently suffered tremendously from Lyme disease, and yet the media triumphantly reports the royal family in the near presence of a koala with the ongoing risk of Lyme disease. Nature parks should be legally responsible for the safety of visitors.

Considerable scientific evidence exists that Lyme disease is "associated or the causative agent" for many diseases. This includes chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), fibromyalgia, autism, arthritis, MS etc. About 90-100% of CFS people in some clinics are Lyme disease positive.  Some Lyme disease sufferers have also been  diagnosed with cancers, and an association between the Lyme bacteria and cancer has been suggested. This association is strengthened by the codiagnosis of Lyme disease and lymphomas.

In summary, Lyme disease is a growing infectious threat in Australia. Medical authorities need to take their collective heads out of the sand and start treating Lyme disease as a serious illness that affects hundreds of thousands of people in Australia.

--

Dr Ivan Hooper BSC PHD

Down under

Halls Gap

Victoria

Australia