Professor Karina Butler:

I have been looking at the numbers. The Senator asked about numbers. In the paediatric area we have been looking at this over the last five-year period. I have just done some quick addition. There probably were between 2,000 and 3,000 tests across the country, as far as we could ascertain. These are retrospective data. Between 1.5% and 4% of those who were tested showed positive results. Certainly awareness is increasing and people are submitting blood samples for testing, but the positivity rate has not changed at all over the years. Although the numbers presenting with chronic symptoms are increasing, and those who might have previously attributed them to other conditions are now thinking of Lyme disease, the actual rates of infection in Ireland do not seem to be increasing greatly as of yet.