Something Tara had posted the other day caught my attention regarding my friends across the pond which mentioned that Lyme disease had been documented in Europe around 1900 (of course at that time it wasn’t called Lyme disease – Lyme is a town in Connecticut where an outbreak of the disease occurred in the mid 1970’s). But this made me wonder how long Lyme (or specifically, the spirochetes associated with it) had been documented in the UK. After doing a little digging I found the site below that has some very interesting information (at least to me).
Based on DNA from ticks preserved in the Natural History Museum, Lyme goes back to Victorian times (the period from approximately 1837 to 1901). Common sense would dictate that ticks can feed on many animals including sheep – and other insects can spread this infection as well and eventually spread the spirochete to humans. Here’s the site with a couple of excerpts from it:
http://www.lymediseaseaction.org.uk/lyme.htm Who gets Lyme disease and Why?
In the United Kingdom, Lyme disease is carried by the sheep tick, Ixodes ricinus. This tick can also feed on deer and other wild mammals and birds. The tick prefers to live in woods, heath and moorland, although it does not occur exclusively in these habitats. People who live in the parts of the country where the tick is prevalent are likely to be at greater risk. However, cases of the disease are widespread and it is possible that the full picture of tick distribution is not yet fully understood. Anyone can get Lyme disease if a tick that is carrying the infection has bitten them.
Is Lyme disease a New Illness?
Studies of the DNA taken from ticks in the Natural History Museum show the infection was in the UK in Victorian times. Therefore, it is almost certainly not a new illness. However, it does appear to be becoming more common.
Obviously, if these insect borne spirochetes can be verified to trace back well over 100 years in the UK, there are unquestionably quite a number of cases there by now (and it would be reasonable to believe that this infection goes back in time far longer than that). I would think that practically anywhere in the UK including the major cities has the potential of animals roaming around (sheep, deer, dogs and many others) that could be carrying ticks or serving as a food source for insects like ticks and mosquitoes. It seems like more doctors in the UK would avail themselves of your healthcare system and undergo cranial / rectal extraction surgery (having their heads removed from their arses). Maybe then they would start paying attention to what appears to be a lengthy history of ticks being infected with the spirochetes that cause Lyme disease (and thus humans being infected) in the UK rather than many of them trying to deny its existence as appears to be the case there. It doesn’t seem unreasonable to me that doctors should be familiar with the basic history of the UK, at least well enough to realize that insect borne illnesses have been around a long time and can be spread quite easily. It seems more and more like arrogant, uninformed and apparently disinterested doctors are far too plentiful no matter what country you happen to live in.
As you say Milly, people need to support the few good doctors that will make honest efforts to treat Lyme regardless of what country they are located in.