Health committee  Hello. My name is Jennifer Kravis. I live in Oakville, Ontario. Thank you for having me here today. I used to be a lawyer and a bank executive, but 11 years ago, at age 36, I was suddenly debilitated and bedridden by a mystery disease that took me hundreds of thousands of dollar

Health committee  I think one suggestion would be to ask the two clinicians who are attending about the different testing modalities that are already in existence and available and could significantly improve the sensitivity of the test. Also, perhaps a perspective on—

Health committee  Lab testing, yes, and also, ask them for a perspective on how we get from here to where we need to be, which is for all medical professionals across Canada to understand the realities of this disease and how to recognize it, diagnose it, and treat it.

Health committee  Yes.

Health committee  Yes, it was certainly raised as an issue.

Health committee  The drugs are available. The treatment that's typically used by doctors who specialize in this field consists of multiple types of antibiotics, often used in combination. There are two reasons. One is that doctors have not been educated on the existence of treatment guidelines t

Health committee  I think the framework is missing an acknowledgement of the concept of tick-borne disease, as Janet Sperling has pointed out. Multiple infections, viruses, and bacteria are all part of the disease, not just one strain. It doesn't address multiple strains of Borrelia and multiple s

Health committee  It wasn't minor. It was that the framework can't go into every possible study.

Health committee  We are aware of several doctors who have been harassed or sanctioned, not necessarily specifically for prescribing antibiotics, but sometime in other areas found during investigation. There are at least three doctors who have retired because of sanction or harassment, and there i

Health committee  I spent about $300,000 on my own treatment and I have just had my kids assessed by a neurologist in Manhattan. That visit cost $15,000, to get them assessed and tested for all the different co-infections they may have, because treatment is non-effective if you're not hitting all

Health committee  That's a great question to ask Dr. Hawkins on Thursday. He is very familiar with the science and mechanisms of the testing. He has some suggestions on using existing testing technology under a different set of criteria, which would significantly improve testing in Canada.

Health committee  Prevention is absolutely key because, obviously, if you don't get bitten by a tick you're not going to get sick. The reality is that ticks are so tiny; they can be microscopic, the size of poppy seeds. It's not possible to 100% prevent ticks. Education has been great on that—pull

Health committee  We will be. We've been busy the last couple of months here.