Thanks so much to you, in light of what you were just saying, and thanks to Terence for mentioning the company IGeneX. The president of the company, Nick Harris, speaking in 2006, pointed out that part of the problem, in his opinion, is that about 20% of Lyme disease patients never make the antibodies, or they're only present at very low levels. That makes it harder for testing.
Clearly, the diagnostics can be improved. Science is always moving forward. I'm not going to jump into saying which test is going to be better than another. I'll leave that to the medical community.
I just want to say that I am a bit apologetic about being your first witness. I did push back a bit, saying “You don't need to hear from me, we should only hear from experts”, but in consultations with the health committee, I was asked to come forward first. I feel as though it would have been a better hour to hear from somebody who is an expert in the field. All I am is a member of Parliament who thinks that we ought to do something.
I think the structure of this bill will bring a significant shift, federally and provincially. Territorially is not so much of a problem because, territorially, the ticks haven't spread that far. I haven't heard of a territorial case of Lyme. It's spreading very quickly in southern Canada, but we do want to make sure that we're cognizant of our role as a federation and involve federal, provincial, and territorial ministers of health in getting to the best possible federal framework to prevent, treat, diagnose, and understand this disease better. That's going to include all those very complicated issues around why it is difficult to diagnose.
Certainly, we have better treatments than we did 10 years ago. We know what to do in ways the medical community didn't know, even a decade ago. Getting the match of the patient, who needs the help, with the right treatment as quickly as possible is something we can help with by getting this bill through as quickly as possible.