Patricia Ryan (Kildare South, Sinn Fein)
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1726. To ask the Minister for Health the number of persons diagnosed with Lyme’s disease in each of the past five years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20767/22]

Patricia Ryan (Kildare South, Sinn Fein)
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1729. To ask the Minister for Health if a national action plan for tackling Lyme disease will be produced by his Department; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20770/22]

Patricia Ryan (Kildare South, Sinn Fein)
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1730. To ask the Minister for Health if his Department will develop Irish guidelines for adults and children for the diagnosis and treatment of Lyme disease and co-infections; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20771/22]

Patricia Ryan (Kildare South, Sinn Fein)
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1731. To ask the Minister for Health if his Department will conduct research on Lyme disease and co-infections from an Irish perspective; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20772/22]

Patricia Ryan (Kildare South, Sinn Fein)
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1732. To ask the Minister for Health if his Department will conduct targeted research into the prevalence of Lyme disease and co-infections in Ireland to create a map of most at risk areas; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20773/22]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 1726 and 1729 to 1732, inclusive, together.

Lyme disease is a tick-borne infection that occurs when recreational or occupation activities result in tick bites from an infected tick. It is relatively rare with estimations that a small proportion of ticks in Ireland are infected.

The Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) is Ireland's specialist agency for the surveillance of communicable diseases. Lyme borreliosis is a notifiable infectious disease, the notifiable entity being the more severe neurological form, Lyme neuroborreliosis. The below table shows the number of notifications of Lyme disease in Ireland in each of the past 5 years. This information, including factsheets for the general public and a map of the most at risk areas can be found on the HPSC website here: www.hpsc.ie/a-z/vectorborne/lymedisease/

Lyme disease in Ireland in each of the past 5 years

The infection is known to be endemic in certain locations and in these areas GPs are very familiar with the most typical presentation which is a rash, often with a bull’s eye appearance. In this setting early treatment can be initiated by the GP and further testing is not required or recommended. More complicated cases require referral to Infectious Diseases clinics, which are currently present in all but one level 4 and all but two level 3 hospitals in Ireland.

The Infectious Disease clinical program, which has been in place for one year, has a workforce strategy to establish a network of Infectious Diseases clinics that will address any current geographic inequity. The publicly funded Infectious Diseases clinics all support the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) guidelines regarding the diagnoses and treatment of Lyme disease. These clinics do not currently have waiting lists and patients are seen in a timely manner. Many hospital laboratories have the capacity to do Lyme serology (ELISA) locally and where not, referral of samples to the National Virus Reference Laboratory (NVRL) occurs. Confirmatory testing (western Blot) is referred to Porton Down which is the referral laboratory for the UK.