Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

182. To ask the Minister for Health his plans to assist persons living with chronic Lyme disease to avail of the long-term illness scheme or the medical card scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22182/17]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The term "chronic Lyme disease" is used by a small number of practitioners (often self-designated as “Lyme-literate physicians”) to describe patients whom they believe have persistent Borrelia burgdorferi infection, a condition they suggest requires long-term antibiotic treatment and may even be incurable. It is used in North America and, increasingly, in Europe as a diagnosis for patients with persistent pain, neurocognitive symptoms, fatigue, or all of these symptoms, with or without clinical or serologic evidence of previous early or late Lyme disease.

Chronic Lyme disease lacks an accepted clinical definition, and in practice the term has been applied to a wide variety of patients. The majority of patients referred for chronic Lyme disease have no objective evidence of the infection, and most often have an alternative medical diagnosis or a 'functional' syndrome such as fibromyalgia or chronic fatigue syndrome.

The most long term of the Lyme syndromes are reliably attributable to inadequate or inappropriate antibiotic treatment at an early phase of the disease. A small number of cases go on to a post-infection syndrome, Post-Treatment Lyme Disease Syndrome (PTLDS), resembling chronic fatigue syndrome. In these cases there are no bacteria in the blood. Most medical experts now believe that the lingering symptoms seen in these cases are the result of residual damage to tissues and the immune system that occurred during the initial infection. Similar complications occur following other infections such as campylobacter, chlamydia , and streptococcal throat infection.

Fatigue, pain and cognitive impairment are the primary complaints among patients who are diagnosed with 'chronic Lyme disease'. However, these symptoms are very common in the general population, and the evidence does not show that they occur any more commonly in patients with a history of Lyme disease. A small minority of patients treated for Lyme disease will go on to have prolonged pain, fatigue or cognitive impairment in the absence of objective signs of treatment failure. Still fewer have severe or disabling symptoms. Studies have shown that PTLDS almost invariably resolves on its own without the need for additional treatment, though people may take several months to fully recover.

There are no plans for this 'condition' to be covered by the Long-Term Illness Scheme or through the medical card scheme.