UK Lyme disease clinic announced

A new clinic for Lyme disease patients will start from September in the Royal Hampshire County Hospital in Winchester. The clinic will be run by Dr Matthew Dryden who has long had an interest in Lyme disease and has treated more than 500 patients over 20+ years. We hope that this will provide an opportunity for the national referral of […]

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PHE leaflet for GPs

Public Health England has issued an awareness leaflet for GPs: “Lyme disease, ticks and your patient’s health“. This is brief but has some useful features which can be drawn to the notice of GPs who may know very little about Lyme disease. The leaflet highlights: Many patients do not recall a bite or find a tick […]

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The turn of a virus

I’ve heard lots of people talking about shingles over the years.  How nasty it is.  How debilitating.  I vaguely knew it was linked to chickenpox.  But I’d never seen it before. Until, that is, I managed to acquire shingles for myself. I confess that I became overtired and not a little stressed.  We are trying […]

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Alternative to A&E

It always happens at the wrong time. There I was trying to get all the lawns cut on the nice dry, sunny day before the rain came. I got to the end of one big lawn, lifted the cutter deck of the ride-on lawn mower and the lever came off in my hand with a […]

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LDA at Primary Care Exhibition

LDA exhibited at the Primary Care conference which is held at the NEC each year. This was our second stand at this exhibition and is an element of the charity’s strategy to reach out to health professionals and provide them with good quality information on Lyme disease. It also gives LDA the opportunity of finding out the […]

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Lyme Neuroborreliosis booklet

LDA has produced a new leaflet on Lyme neuroborreliosis, based on currently available research papers. Aimed principally at health professionals, this addresses the symptoms,  diagnosis and treatment of Lyme neuroborreliosis: Lyme disease affecting the peripheral and central nervous system. Differences in the presentation in children and elderly patients are discussed as are the range of tests which […]

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BBC Health highlights Lyme disease

The BBC ran a well researched article following the UK demonstration in London for the Worldwide Lyme Disease Protest. This was picked up very quickly across the country and resulted in a surge of enquiries to LDA’s patient help email service. These included emails from patients who had seen the EM rash on themselves some years […]

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Fast Forward >> Mind the gap!

In March I attended a talk at Exeter University entitled ‘The Emotional Body in Health and Illness’, by Professor Gillian Bendelow, Professor of Sociology at Sussex University.  Prof Bendelow worked as a ward sister in London’s East End, before becoming a psychiatric nurse and then pursuing an academic career in sociology. The subject of her […]

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Listen, please!

One of those moments when you wonder “what if I had done that…?”. What if, as I turned round from picking up my coffee at the conference reception and saw Sally Davies 10 yards away (the Dame Professor Sally Davies who is currently Chief Medical Officer) I had gone across to her and said “before […]

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LDA questions the role of deer in the spread of Lyme disease

Today, the BBC reported on a new study suggesting that a large deer cull would bring a number of environmental benefits (read article). However, the overall role of deer in Lyme disease is unclear, says charity Lyme Disease Action. Lyme disease is an infectious disease transmitted to humans by the bite of an infected tick […]

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