Health committee  Yes, certainly. I can briefly discuss this. I'm not a clinician myself, but I prepared for this as a witness, and I read quite a bit on the treatments. Basically, you're right. It responds very well when you take it early with doxycyclines or amoxicillin, which are very standard

Health committee  I really can't answer that. Guidelines aren't within my area of expertise. The people from the Public Health Agency of Canada may be in a better position to answer that.

Health committee  Very well. Thank you for the question. Obviously, when comparing ourselves with the U.S., right off the bat, we have to multiply any investments by a factor of 10. Consequently, where we have spent $7 million, they have spent at least $70 million. In addition, the U.S. spends tw

Health committee  I would say it's important to have a certain degree of duplication because, very often, the strains are not exactly the same. They are just as likely to have unique characteristics in the U.S. as they are in Canada. Even within Canada, ticks out west aren't exactly the same ticks

Health committee  The two main investigators that I've mentioned are Dr. George Chaconas and Dr. Tara Moriarty. They've both won prizes for their work on Lyme disease. Dr. Chaconas is collaborating with a number of Canadian investigators, including Dr. Paul Kubes, also in Calgary, who's a very wel

Health committee  My pleasure.

Health committee  Of the bacteria within the ticks or within the human body. They had a very special way of dividing their genome from one bacteria to another. This is what he's studying, to try to find new targets that are not part of our human body but are part of the bacteria, and to target the

Health committee  Exactly. By understanding better how the bacteria divide, you can counteract this activity and reduce and kill the bacteria.

Health committee  Cancer is a big question because there are some cancers we're pretty advanced in treating and others where we're quite behind. It's not an easy question. Lyme disease per se, if you detect it early, responds very well to antibiotics. The problem is that often the symptoms are not

Health committee  Very good. On prevention measures, we know that it's in the environment. There are ticks. There are animals that are the carriers of the bacteria. Ticks have a blood meal on an infected animal, become infected with the bacteria and then can transmit it. Prevention can be at the

Health committee  I can hear you very well. Can you hear me?

Health committee  Okay, wonderful. Thank you very much. I would like to thank the committee for inviting me to speak to you on how the Government of Canada is supporting Lyme-disease-related research across the country. First of all, I would like to say how impressed I am by the deliberations yo