Lyme Disease in Canada - Resource

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Lyme research is lacking in Canada

Billions of dollars are spent on health care and research in Canada with amazingly little public oversight, much to the delight of business interests. Very little attention is paid to those who decide where to spend our dollars.

The Canadian Foundation for Innovation set up by the government of Canada, gave 3.8 billion taxpayer dollars out since its inception in 1997, to only 128 institutions. A pretty elite club. No doubt a funnel through which tax dollars flow into hands of business via our colleges and universities. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but research scientists and those who have been mingling for years with the business machine are not those we want reviewing who gets the money. We have to look at publicly electing people to these positions, and restricting terms of service of those allowed to review research proposals. In just one year, 2005-06, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research spent almost a billion dollars. What have taxpayers seen for all this money? How much research is guided by and for the benefit of business? Victims groups MUST be active participants in deciding where research dollars go. (Not just those from the select few present big dollar charities that have been around for decades, and the bureaucratic/medical elite)

We have been told that out of both of these mega government institutions' huge budgets there will be NO research dollars available to assist the Canadian Lyme Disease Foundation, CanLyme, in establishing a research centre and treatment clinic in Canada that will truly investigate Lyme disease. These beaurocrats have decided they are going to continue to piecemeal out research dollars rather than confront disease head on.Farming sickness until a profitable way of dealing with it is found seems more appropriate to those who manage our tax dollars allocated for medical research. Brazil, on the other hand identified they had a rapidly growing problem with Lyme-like disease, a possible gene on/off switching change of the same Lyme bacteria as we have. They created such a facility and are taking this very seriously, as are other countries of the world.

Our health care budgets are going through the roof and there is no research money to spend looking for the true impact that the fastest growing zoonotic disease in the world has on the human body today and in the future. We'll spend some token dollars chasing ticks, and some dollars looking for a drug (not enough in that regard)...but to get serious and identify the scope of this disease will not happen from their funds, according to PHAC and CIHR. (Lyme bacteria and other borrelia have been found to play a role in approx. 200 diagnoses of diseases and conditions that collectively will bankrupt our system in coming decades)CIHR spent 194 million dollars on strategic initiatives in 2005-06 alone. Lyme disease groups have been asking for serious strategic research dollars for going on to 20 years. Canada no longer has a socialized health care system and hasn't for years, we instead run a social event, a wide-open playground and a "good old boys" club for business.

Our government medical directors are globe trotters, associating within the medical business machine which includes the pharmaceuticals, vaccine manufacturers, medical insurers, the World Health Organization and the CDC. Here in Canada the lowly sick are simply an annoyance and the CPHLN guidelines reflect that reality. They complain that we take up too much of their valuable time.Lyme disease has spread un-checked under their watch, is under-diagnosed, and has been shown in research to be present in several disease processes of which Canada has some of the highest rates in the world of, all while making the medical business machine very rich.

Canadians are dropping like flies but still no strategic research initiative. Gotta wonder who is in control."

Jim Wilson, president CanLyme