Canada: Health Research LD Luncheon Event

[RitaA]

I don’t see a date for this event anywhere in the following link, however I'm guessing it took place on December 3, 2014 based on some comments that were made.

There are two rather long YouTube videos that may not interest most LNE members. I agree with statements made in the second video about a greater need for cooperation among Canadian Lyme disease researchers. The luncheon event was a rather casual affair, so be prepared for some major distractions (mostly servers and at least one person taking photographs) if you plan to watch one or both videos.

http://www.rc-rc.ca/events/hrc-lyme-disease

Health Research Caucus Luncheon

Hosted by the Hon. Senator Kelvin K. Ogilvie

LYME DISEASE IN CANADA
LUNCHEON EVENT

Speakers:

Dr. Tara Moriarty
Assistant Professor, University of Toronto

and

Dr. Nick Ogden
Senior Research Scientist, Zoonoses Division,
Centre for Food-borne, Environmental and
Zoonotic Infectious Diseases,
Public Health Agency of Canada.

[snip]

I'm guessing the date for the luncheon event was Dec. 3rd based on this article:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/lyme-di ... -1.2858622

Lyme disease bill to be challenged by infectious disease experts in Senate

May is 'arguing on behalf of an anti-science lobby,' says B.C. deputy chief medical officer

By Helen Branswell, The Canadian Press Posted: Dec 03, 2014 8:14 AM ET Last Updated: Dec 03, 2014 8:21 AM ET

An organization representing Canada's infectious diseases specialists plans to raise objections to a private member's bill on Lyme disease at Senate committee hearing today.

As far as I can tell, a second session was scheduled on Dec. 10th, but I haven’t found any articles or official transcript related to that yet.

http://www.ipolitics.ca/2014/12/10/dail ... se-agenda/

Dec 10, 2014

Witnesses from the Public Health Agency of Canada and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research have been invited to testify at the social affairs, science and technology committee on Green Party leaders Elizabeth May’s Bill C-442, An Act respecting a Federal Framework on Lyme Disease. Clause by clause consideration is expected to follow.

The luncheon event and Bill C-442 are not strictly related, however I'm including the references to the bill here to establish the timing of the luncheon event and as a reminder to myself to follow up on the outcome of the Dec. 10th activities.

[duncan]

Professor Moriarty spoke there.

Just saying...

[RitaA]

Dr. Moriarty is the person who highlighted the need for Canadian Lyme disease researchers to start communicating/collaborating more with one another. She also lives near Rouge Valley, an area in the city of Toronto where ticks that are infected with Borrelia burgdorferi were recently discovered. There’s more about Dr. Moriarty and her work at the University of Toronto in this link:

http://www.lmp.utoronto.ca/research/fac ... lendarlist

Research location: University of Toronto - St. George Campus (downtown)
Primary Research Area: Infectious Diseases & Immunopathology
Secondary Research Area: Molecular & Cell Biology

Research Statement:

Blood-borne dissemination of pathogens is responsible for most of the mortality associated with bacterial infections, but dissemination mechanisms remain largely uncharacterized. We investigate the dissemination mechanisms of invasive bacteria (especially the Lyme disease spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi), in an effort to develop alternative therapeutic approaches for treating bacterial infection.

[duncan]

So me adding "The game's afoot!" would probably be meaningless. You're just ignoring me because I was too juvenile. Ok, I'm going to grab my violin and play some chess.

But on the outside chance you missed my silliness, I meant no disrespect to Professor Moriarty. I was just being, well, silly.

[RitaA]

I honestly didn't understand your post, but it did give me the opportunity to highlight some of Dr. Moriarty's important research, so it's all good.

[duncan]

Hey, I am so relieved! Very cool. Sometimes I can't tell if I am conveying things as well as I need to be. That's my bad. But Arthur Conan Doyle, right? Holmes and Watson and yes, the evil genius Professor Moriarty.

Only your Professor Moriarty seems like an excellent and important researcher, who doesn't appear intent on world domination.

[RitaA]

The reference to Professor Moriarity flew right over this brain that no longer connects dots as well as it once did.

I just learned this about the fictional Professor Moriarity:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professor_Moriarty

Professor James Moriarty is a fictional character in some of the Sherlock Holmes stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Moriarty is a criminal mastermind whom Holmes describes as the "Napoleon of crime". Doyle lifted the phrase from a Scotland Yard inspector who was referring to Adam Worth, a real-life criminal mastermind and one of the individuals upon whom the character of Moriarty was based.

My brain only seems to be processing real-life medical stuff at the moment -- in part because of a week's delay in my husband's "urgent" MRI/MRA and an even longer delay for an MRI in a close family member who may (or may not) have one or possibly even two types of cancer -- both with very poor survival rates.

I have high hopes for "our" Professor Moriarity and other Lyme disease researchers in Canada, and really hope they get all the research funding and other support they require now and in the years to come.

[duncan]

I hope everything works out for your family, Rita. I think it is harder when it is family, than when we merely have to deal with our own illnesses and problems. We are a little bit more impotent because it is not us. But frequently we actually care even more for them than we do for ourselves. It's one of those inexplicable and intolerably twisted "wrongs" of life.

I'm hoping everything works out for you and them.

[RitaA]

Thanks so much for your kind words, Duncan. I really do appreciate them, and agree that it's often easier dealing with our own stuff -- as difficult as that has been (and continues to be) for so many of us.

I just got a call from my mother's cardiologist (in the U.S.), telling me that she's being sent to the ER by ambulance for newly-identified atrial fibrillation and will likely be kept in the hospital at least overnight. I suspect Mum has been overmedicating herself with a diuretic (a yearly event), so I'm not overly concerned at this point. The timing isn't great for a number of reasons, but that's life.

[ChronicLyme19]

Don't worry RitaA, I didn't get the reference either. Although now I see the explanation, good joke Duncan.

RitaA, I hope things get figured out with your family with positive outcomes.

I have high hopes for "our" Professor Moriarity and other Lyme disease researchers in Canada, and really hope they get all the research funding and other support they require now and in the years to come.

Me too; good research anywhere will help all of us, not just Canadians.