CBC (Canada) Nature of Things episode on LD

[RitaA]

http://www.cbc.ca/natureofthings/blog/l ... anada.html

Lyme Disease: Spreading across Canada

It's official. A March 2012 study confirmed that the tick that spreads lyme disease has been infiltrating Canada for the past 20 years.

Despite this many Canadians still tell tales of years of misdiagnosis and mistreatment as doctors tell them that it just isn't possible to contract lyme disease in this country.

Meet Peter von Tiesenhausen. He believes that he contracted lyme disease over a decade ago while camping in south western British Columbia.

[3-minute video clip]

With global warming, the tick's range is expected to expand dramatically over the next twenty years - by then 80% of Canadians east of Saskatchewan will live in at risk areas. How prepared is our medical community for a dramatic increases in cases?

Learn more on Ticked Off: The Mystery of Lyme Disease airing this October on The Nature of Things.

All of the previews (that I could find) are available here – after you get through the short advertisements:

http://www.cbc.ca/player/Shows/Shows/Th ... 401291354/

THE NATURE OF THINGS | Season 2013-2014, Episode 1 | Aug 15, 2013 | 2:16

Ticked Off: The Mystery of Lyme Disease - Daryl Woods

Daryl’s 26-year-old daughter Dayna contracted Lyme in 2009 in the Grand Beach area of Manitoba.

http://www.cbc.ca/player/Shows/Shows/Th ... 401291355/

THE NATURE OF THINGS | Season 2013-2014, Episode 1 | Aug 15, 2013 | 3:01

Ticked Off: The Mystery of Lyme Disease - Peter von Tiesenhausen

Peter believes he contracted Lyme in 1999 while he was camping in South Western British Columbia.

http://www.cbc.ca/player/Shows/Shows/Th ... 401291356/

THE NATURE OF THINGS | Season 2013-2014, Episode 1 | Aug 15, 2013 | 1:46

Ticked Off: The Mystery of Lyme Disease - Reid Takvam

Reid’s son Tyler contracted Lyme in 2010 when he was fourteen.

http://www.cbc.ca/player/Shows/Shows/Th ... 401291357/

THE NATURE OF THINGS | Season 2013-2014, Episode 1 | Aug 15, 2013 | 2:05

Ticked Off: The Mystery of Lyme Disease - Dana Peters

Dana believes she contracted Lyme when she was in North Western Ontario.

http://www.cbc.ca/player/Shows/Shows/Th ... 401291358/

THE NATURE OF THINGS | Season 2013-2014, Episode 1 | Aug 15, 2013 | 4:29

Ticked Off: The Mystery of Lyme Disease - Allison Kirby

Allison Kirby was camping in the mountains in BC when she contacted Lyme in 2002.

I'll post a link to the complete episode once it's available (and if I remember).

In the meantime, here’s a CBC radio broadcast from earlier this summer:

http://www.cbc.ca/video/news/audioplaye ... 2395636149

Wednesday July 3, 2013

Lyme Disease

Matt Galloway spoke with our health columnist Dr. Peter Lin.
(runs 6:50)

[RitaA]

I just saw this:

Episode only available in Canada

For any fellow Canadians, here are more details about the upcoming episode:

http://www.cbc.ca/natureofthings/episod ... me-disease

Ticked Off: The Mystery of Lyme Disease

Thursday, October 10, 2013 at 8 PM on CBC-TV

Lyme disease, a mysterious tick-borne illness, is the fastest spreading vector-borne disease in the United States, and over the past decade, the tick that carries Lyme has been spreading across Canada with alarming speed. TICKED OFF: THE MYSTERY OF LYME DISEASE is a fascinating and eye-opening documentary that explores a disease that has devastating effects, is often misdiagnosed and mistreated, and continues to be mired in a medical controversy.

More than 30,000 cases are reported in the USA every year, but the real number could be as high as 300,000. And despite hard evidence that the Lyme-carrying, deer tick has already established populations across Canada, some people claim that patients here are still being told that they cannot contract Lyme in this country.

Doctors agree that if it’s caught early Lyme disease can usually be cured with two to four weeks of antibiotics. There are others who believe that if it’s not caught early, the infection can develop into a debilitating condition they call Chronic Lyme. Yet unlike West Nile, Encephalitis or SARS, where the medical profession and scientists joined forces to find better treatments or a cure, many patients, who claim to have chronic Lyme, say that they are being denied treatment and left to suffer. So why is this happening?

From the micro world of the tick and its disease-causing bacteria, to the macro world of human suffering and medical science, TICKED OFF: THE MYSTERY OF LYME DISEASE investigates the story behind this current medical mystery.


Credits

cbc.ca

producer
Annette Bradford

associate producer
Robert Ballantyne
Olena Sullivan

cbc-tv

written and directed by
Ryszard Hunka

produced by
Erna Buffie
Merit Jensen Carr

editor
David McGunigal

cinematography
Gabriel Levesque

original music
Shawn Pierce

graphics and animation
Jamie Hopkins
Pete Siemens

assistant camera
Pascal Boisvert
James Meagher

location sound
Russ Dyck

line producer
Sandra Moore

research/visual research
Bonnie Dickie

additional visual research
Diedra Renee Bayne
David McGunigal

online editor
Jack Lauder

sound editors
Russ Dyck
John Schritt

re-recording engineer
Howard Rissin

assistant editor / conform editor
Diedra Renee Bayne

post production supervisor
Sandra Moore

post production coordinator
Diedra Renee Bayne

production assistants
Ariel Levine
Dan Catalfamo
Sara Alfaro-Franco
Colin Foley
Laura Carnet

publicists
Jennifer Jensen-Tracy
Christine Liber

special thanks
Elizabeth Wood Jeffrey Russel
Melitta Franceschini Dr. Kateryn Rochon
Mary deLisser Marjorie Johns
Jim Wilson Barbara Buchman
Donna Moriarty Debra Heras
Taylor, Avery, Graham and Harrison Goertzen Dr. Alison Bested
Staff and patients at Pacific Frontier Medical Clinic, Pangaea Clinic of Naturopathic
Medicine, Dr. McShane’s clinic
Staff at New York Medical College
Staff and students at Fort Richmond Collegiate
The McGill Migratory Bird Observatory and Redpath Museum, McGIll University
Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Université de Montréal
School of Veterinary Medicine, UC Davis
University of Victoria, SEMS
Humans and Canines at the “One Health Tick-Borne Disease Testing Clinic,” UC Davis
Public Health Agency of Canada, National Microbiology Laboratory
Lyme Disease Support Group of Manitoba
Canadian Lyme Disease Foundation (CanLyme)
Dr. E. Murakami Centre for Lyme
International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society (ILADS)

additional footage courtesy of
Pond5
Footage Search
Little Wolf Production
South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology – http://www.iceman.it
Roger Teissl, Austrian Police
Paul Mihalick
Lisa Hilton
Magnum Photos
Stuart Franklin
Thinkstock
iStockphoto
Hemera

produced by
Tick Films Inc. / Merit Motion Pictures

produced in association with
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation 2013

senior producer
Frances-Mary Morrison

executive producer
Sue Dando


A MERIT MOTION PICTURES PRODUCTION

executive producer
Merit Jensen Carr
© MMXIII – Tick Films Inc.

for the nature of things

online editing
Edwin Wilkinson

associate director
Renée Moreau

unit production manager
June Hall

business manager
Documentary Unit
Wilma Alexander

senior producers
FM Morrison
Caroline Underwood

executive producer
Sue Dando

executive director
Documentary Programming
Mark Starowicz

The Nature of Things
with David Suzuki

produced by
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

cbc.ca/natureofthings

There's always a chance that someone in Canada will record the episode and make it available for viewing on YouTube. I'll do my best to check for that in the coming weeks and months.

"Nature of Things" is widely viewed in Canada, and David Suzuki is considered a credible source of scientific information. At the very least, this episode should help to educate the general public (and possibly even medical professionals) about Lyme disease.

[RitaA]

This explains why David Suzuki is so widely known and highly regarded by Canadians:

http://www.davidsuzuki.org/david/

Biography

David Suzuki, Co-Founder of the David Suzuki Foundation, is an award-winning scientist, environmentalist and broadcaster. He is renowned for his radio and television programs that explain the complexities of the natural sciences in a compelling, easily understood way.

Dr. Suzuki is a geneticist. He graduated from Amherst College (Massachusetts) in 1958 with an Honours BA in Biology, followed by a Ph.D. in Zoology from the University of Chicago in 1961. He held a research associateship in the Biology Division of Tennessee's Oak Ridge National Lab (1961 – 62), was an Assistant Professor in Genetics at the University of Alberta (1962 – 63), and since then has been a faculty member of the University of British Columbia. He is now Professor Emeritus at UBC.

In 1972, he was awarded the E.W.R. Steacie Memorial Fellowship for the outstanding research scientist in Canada under the age of 35 and held it for three years. He has won numerous academic awards and holds 25 honourary degrees in Canada, the U.S. and Australia. He was elected to the Royal Society of Canada and is a Companion of the Order of Canada. Dr. Suzuki has written 52 books, including 19 for children. His 1976 textbook An Introduction to Genetic Analysis (with A.J.F. Griffiths), remains the most widely used genetics text book in the U.S. and has been translated into Italian, Spanish, Greek, Indonesian, Arabic, French and German.

Dr. Suzuki has received consistently high acclaim for his thirty years of award-winning work in broadcasting. In 1974 he developed and hosted the long running popular science program Quirks and Quarks on CBC Radio for four years. He has since presented two influential documentary CBC radio series on the environment, It's a Matter of Survival and From Naked Ape to Superspecies. His national television career began with CBC in 1971 when he wrote and hosted Suzuki on Science. He was host of Science Magazine (1974 – 79) then created and hosted a number of television specials, and in 1979 became the host of the award-winning series, The Nature of Things with David Suzuki. He has won four Gemini Awards as best host of different Canadian television series. His eight part television series, A Planet for the Taking, won an award from the United Nations. His eight part BBC/PBS series, The Secret of Life, was praised internationally, as was his five part series The Brain for the Discovery Channel. On June 10, 2002 he received the John Drainie Award for broadcasting excellence.

Dr. Suzuki is also recognized as a world leader in sustainable ecology. He is the recipient of UNESCO's Kalinga Prize for Science, the United Nations Environment Program Medal, UNEPs Global 500 and in 2009 won the Right Livelihood Award that is considered the Alternative Nobel Prize.

For a more complete list of David's professional accomplishments and awards, please refer to his full CV here (31.5Kb PDF). To read some of Dr. Suzuki's latest writings, please visit the Science Matters Archive. Each week in Science Matters, Dr. Suzuki examines how changes in science and technology affect our lives and the world around us. You can also take a look at his book list with Greystone books.

[RitaA]

The "Nature of Things" episode is now available for viewing online -- but only by Canadians. "Ticked Off: The Mystery of Lyme Disease" should be available for international viewers in the future:

http://www.cbc.ca/player/Shows/ID/2411526805/

THE NATURE OF THINGS | Season 2013-2014, Episode 2 | Oct 10, 2013 | 44:43

Ticked Off: The Mystery Of Lyme Disease

The tick that carries Lyme disease has been spreading across Canada with alarming speed. From the micro world of the tick and its disease-causing bacteria, to the macro world of human infection, Ticked Off explores a disease that can have devastating effects, is often misdiagnosed and mistreated, and continues to be mired in a medical controversy.

[RitaA]

http://canlyme.com/2013/10/16/researche ... e-disease/

Researcher John Scott responds to The Nature of Things CBC TV episode on Lyme disease

POSTED ON OCTOBER 16, 2013 BY CANLYME

xxxxxxxxxx

xxxxx, Ontario

Sue Dando
Executive Producer
Science and Natural History Unit
CBC-TV Documentary
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
P.O. Box 500, Station A
Toronto, Ontario M5W 1E6

15 October 2013



Dear Ms. Dando:

Re: The Nature of Things with Dr. David Suzuki
Ticked-off: The Mystery of Lyme Disease, 10 October 2013


Although your program on ticks and Lyme disease covered both sides of the chronic Lyme disease debate, it left the viewing audience in a flurry of confusion. What are viewers going to believe, and who are they going to believe. Many statements made by professional interviewees were a cascade of dogmatic myths and misguided speculations. With the exception of Drs. Barthold, Donta, Foley, Harris, Murakami, and Patrick, the medical/scientific information was slanted, warped, or flawed. In the end, the program leaves viewers in a quandary. Unfortunately, patients with persistent Lyme disease lose in the fight to get diagnosed and treated.

Comments like: “ticks will soon occupy the neighbourhoods where people live,” and “full-scale invasion,” and “Lyme disease is growing at an alarming rate,” are pure sensationalism.

As well, the programme was full of unscientific and faulty information. For example, Dr. Virginie Millien, McGill University, stated that the winters were too cold for the ticks [blacklegged ticks, Ixodes scapularis] to overwinter. In reality, in the fall, I. scapularis, which have antifreeze-like compounds in their bodies, descend into the moist, leaf litter and humus layer on the forest floor, and are cozy under an insulating blanket of snow. Climate change is not a factor in overwinter survival. Researchers (Millien, Ogden, Leighton) overlooked the fact that deer mice,Peromyscus maniculatus, which act as reservoir-competent host for the Lyme disease spirochete, Borrelia burgdorferi, are indigenous across Canada. Therefore, why would any zoologist study the movement of the white-footed mouse, Peromycus leucopus, when we already have deer mice that are competent reservoirs for B. burgdorferi? It makes no practical sense.

Contrary to what was stated by the commenter, ticks do not get B. burgdorferi from squirrels because they are not a reservoir-competent host.

One segment of the video mentioned that ticks collected from songbirds at the McGill Bird Observatory were sent for testing of B. burgdorferi. And yet, no credits were given as to where they were sent for testing, nor did it provide where the relevant results (Scott et al. 2012) were published. This is my research, and it was overlooked. Songbirds widely disperse Lyme disease vector ticks, and people do not have to go to an endemic area to contract Lyme disease (Scott et al. 2012). Migratory songbirds have been bringing Lyme vector ticks into to Canada for millennia. The border has been meaningless to passerine migrants.

The commenter mentioned that in 2002 tick populations started to increase in various provinces. This statement is false. Previously, Dr. Satyendra Banerjee found 20 endemic areas in British Columbia in 1993, and they were officially announced on 14 July 1993 (Banerjee et al. 1994).

Your program made a fervent effort to examine both sides of the debate on chronic Lyme disease; however, it completely overlooked our research on ticks and Lyme disease. To date, we have published 14 peer-reviewed scientific articles. The last article (Scott et al. 2012), which I have enclosed, was cited by BioMedLib, as the most cited in its domain (ticks, Lyme disease, mammalian, avian, hosts, Borrelia burgdorferi) for one full year after publication. I am wondering why our bird-tick-Borrelia research was overlooked.

Tick drags (right on the ground), which were shown several times during the program, are a poor way to collect blacklegged ticks. For immatures (larvae, nymphs), live-trapping is the best method, whereas flagging (brushing low-level vegetation) is superior for adults; note scientific literature. Importantly, the people doing the dragging were inadequately dressed for the job. What happens when a stick tears or pokes a hole in a sock while dragging? Socks have a great tendency to come down unless they are taped up.

Dr. Nick Ogden and Patrick Leighton vouched warmer climate is increasing the number of ticks [blacklegged ticks]. Any research to this effect is inconclusive. In fact, the blacklegged ticks were barely studied before 2002, so how could anyone know whether there has been an increase, or whether they were just ignored and overlooked by Canadian federal and provincial researchers who did not want to draw attention to the problem. I remember in 1992 that one federal researcher told me that he would not know what to do if the blacklegged ticks crossed the border! Actually, they were first documented in Canada at Bracebridge, Ontario in 1904.

Dr. Robbin Lindsay can’t believe the change in the increase of tick populations in Canada. He stated that songbirds bring 50-175 ticks into Canada annually, but says that he has no idea what is causing the increase of ticks and Lyme disease in Canada. Admittedly, he has been studying ticks since 1989, so he should have an explanation. Perhaps he spent too much time at Long Point, and ignored the rest of Canada.

Dr. Gary Wormser states that chronic Lyme disease does not exist. Having him on the video was a great disservice to Lyme disease patients. Each patient must be assessed clinically on an individual basis. Now, more and more patients will have to go stateside for diagnosis and treatment. I have a list of 300 peer-reviewed scientific/medical articles showing the persistence of B. burgdorferi after standard (2-4 weeks) treatment with antibiotics. Dr. Wormser’s comments are highly flawed and, in fact, they are lies—all to cover up his conflict of interests and personal biases. Frankly, he has no regard for patients of this insidious, debilitating disease. His statement: “my heart goes out to them [patients]” is a despicable joke!

Overall, your program was overloaded by too much information from government officials. Frankly, they don’t care about the plight of patients. I quote Upton Sinclair:

“It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on him not knowing it.”

Your program overlooked one very important point: B. burgdorferi has pleomorphic forms. These diverse forms explain why patients have persistent Lyme disease. In addition, the dormant cysts and motile spirochetes form biofilm colonies that are even more difficult to treat. Additionally, B. burgdorferi sequesters and hides in immune-privileged sites; namely, ligaments, tendons, brain, eyes, and bone. These sites are very hard to penetrate with current antibiotics, especially in older patients. As Lyme disease progresses in the body, the immune system modulates and, over time, is suppressed, and fewer antibodies are produced. This downward pattern of the immunological response has been charted in dogs with Lyme disease.

Dr. Robbin Lindsay mentioned that the current serology test in Canada is the best that we have. This is not true. Dr. Eva Sapi, University of Connecticut, and Advanced Laboratory Services, in Pennsylvania, provide evidence that culture of B. burgdorferi from blood is superior. At Advanced Laboratory Services, B. burgdorferi can be cultured from the blood of immuno-compromised Lyme disease patients, which normally exhibit seronegativity. Serology test kits, which are manufactured in the U.S.A., do not reflect the wide diversity of B. burgdorferi genotypes across North America. Worldwide, there are over 100 genotypes of B. burgdorferi, and only 1-3 are currently represented in 2-tiered Canadian serology tests. Songbirds can bring diverse B. burgdorferi variants to Canadian from as far south as the northern part of South America. Furthermore, people have global travel, and acquire these variants. Also, variant strains could be brought into Canada by songbirds during northward spring migration, or by mammalian hosts, including travellers. Notably, researchers (Clark et al. 2013) in Florida provided evidence of B. andersonii and B. americana in Lyme disease patients. These Borrelia genotypes are pathogenic, and not detected by the 2-tier serology test. Dr. Lindsay completely overlooked what is happening south of the border when it comes to Lyme disease serology testing, and the importance of recognizing these diverse B. burgdorferi genotypes in assessing Lyme infections.

One thing is certain: the medical profession in Canada is woefully ignorant about Lyme disease. When Lyme disease is mentioned to them, they promptly withdraw, are mute, and move on to another topic. Fortunately, your video makes this point.

The comments that an increase in tick numbers is “spurred on by climate change” is strictly bias; this point is clearly unfounded. As well, the statement that 80% of the population will live near an endemic area by 2020, is pure speculation—unfounded hype, and unsubstantiated by scientific proof. Not only are these points myopic, they are only a hypothesis.

In conclusion, your show creates awareness of Lyme disease across Canada, but leaves the audience in a state of confusion asking what is valid, and who is correct. The 1-hour program is slanted far too much towards government spokespeople, and does not get to the heart of how patients are going to get diagnosed and treated in Canada. The audience is left hanging.

Yours truly,



John D. Scott, M.Sc.

Research Scientist

Xc: Dr. David Suzuki

Enclosures: Article: Scott et al. 2012; Submission Release

[iyama]

Ticked Off: The Mystery Of Lyme Disease
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5d2jsw

or here (in lower quality)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3Wo534RCvE