Some Quebecers say Lyme disease ticks are here

Some Quebecers say they are suffering unnecessarily because Lyme disease is not properly recognized by medical authorities in the province.

Quebec's Public Health Department says Quebecers who have the disease did not contract the illness there.

But a CBC News investigation found more than a dozen people who said they got Lyme disease in the province.

They said their cases went undiagnosed because medical officials won't acknowledge the extent of the problem. One of the victims agreed to talk about her experience.

Caroline Carrier said she and her son got Lyme disease after being bitten by deer ticks in their backyard about an hour's drive southeast of Montreal.

Carrier told CBC News her seven-year-old son ended up on a respirator in a hospital intensive care unit before his illness was diagnosed.

She then described her own symptoms.

"I could not do anything, nothing. [I was] unable to walk, unable to do the groceries, unable to cook. I thought I was going to die. [I was] sleeping a lot, crying in pain," Carrier said.

Carrier said she was not able to get her illness diagnosed in Quebec.

So she sent blood samples to a private lab in the U.S., and got a diagnosis of Lyme disease. She then got treatment from an American doctor, which cleared up the symptoms.

Lyme disease starts out like the flu, and in some cases a rash. But if it's undiagnosed, it can lead to paralysis, memory loss, and eventually multiple organ failure.

Michel Couillard of the National Public Health Institute of Quebec said laboratories in Canada read test results for Lyme disease based on guidelines stipulated by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.

He said private laboratories in the United States interpret the tests differently.

"Some private labs are using different guidelines that are less stringent," Couillard said.

The Centres for Disease Control has a warning on its website saying that private labs use criteria for diagnosing Lyme disease that have not been validated.

But along with several other Quebecers, Carrier said the results she got from a private lab in the U.S. finally put an end to her suffering, and her son Tristan is smiling again. Carrier said it's time for public health authorities to recognize the ticks causing Lyme disease are in Quebec.