Confirmed cases, awareness of Lyme disease rising in Manitoba

Global News

3 days ago

Cases of Lyme disease have risen in Manitoba in recent years, according to data for the province.
In 2024, Manitoba saw 77 confirmed cases of Lyme disease and seven probable cases. That's an increase from the year prior, which saw 47 confirmed cases and eleven probable cases. In 2022, there were 33 confirmed cases and 10 probable cases.
Dr. Jason Bachewich, a naturopathic doctor with Nature Doctors in Winnipeg, says the rising case numbers may be partially due to greater awareness of the disease and the risks.
'It's hard to know whether it's an increase or just increased awareness,' Bachewich said. 'Ten years ago, we weren't looking for it at all. Now we're seeing it all the time.'
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Jason Bachewich is a naturopathic doctor with Nature Doctors in Winnipeg, Man. Josh Arason / Global News
Bachewich noted there are still a lot of myths and misinformation when it comes to Lyme disease.
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While symptoms can vary between patients, common symptoms of Lyme disease include a bull's-eye rash, fever, chills, fatigue, and muscle and joint aches.
'A lot of patients think if they don't get the bull's-eye lesion, they don't get Lyme disease,' Bachewich said. 'But that's only prevalent in about 20 to 30 per cent of patients. So about seven out of 10 patients don't get a bull's-eye lesion,' he said.
Symptoms of more progressed Lyme disease can include migratory pain throughout the body, arthritis and memory loss.
Marnie Le Page's daughter Brooke was diagnosed with Lyme a decade ago. She says navigating the diagnosis was a lot more challenging then.
'Treatment and learning about the disease was very, very difficult 10 years ago,' Le Page told Global News. 'It's improved some, but still, absolutely the public needs to know more about it.'
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Marnie Le Page volunteers with Manitoba Lyme, a group that works to raise awareness on the risks and prevention of Lyme disease in Manitoba. Josh Arason / Global News
Le Page volunteers with the organization Manitoba Lyme, which works to provide awareness on Lyme disease and other tick-borne illnesses. She says she would like to see broader awareness of how serious the consequences can be, and feels the numbers are still largely underreported.
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'If you're bit by a tick and you have symptoms or the rash, you need to get treatment,' she said. 'Either way, if you've been bit by a tick, you need to explore it. But if you have those two (symptoms), those are pretty black and white, and you need to go to the doctor and get treatment for it.'
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She also says there are other strains of Lyme disease that don't have available testing.
'If you've been bit by a tick, you have symptoms, you have a bull's-eye rash; you've got to get treated and not wait for lab test results,' she said.
'Because it's quite possible you've been bit by a tick that carries the bacteria they don't have testing for. It can be a really ugly situation with very little they can do medically for it, so prevention is absolutely key.'
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A container of black-legged ticks in the lab at the University of Manitoba. Josh Arason / Global News
Manitobans who find a tick are encouraged to upload it to eTick, a website and app that identifies the species of tick, provides information about the risks and helps with public health surveillance.
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Kateryn Rochon, an associate professor of entomology at the University of Manitoba, collects and analyzes black-legged ticks in the lab. Josh Arason / Global News
In Manitoba, ticks uploaded to the app are identified by Kateryn Rochon's team of researchers in the University of Manitoba's Department of Entomology.
Rochon, an associate professor of entomology, and her team also collect and analyze black-legged ticks, which are the species that primarily carries Lyme disease.
She says often the black-legged ticks are as small as a poppyseed, making them almost undetectable to the human eye.
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In Manitoba, if you upload a tick to the eTick app, it will be assessed and identified by researchers at the U of M. Josh Arason / Global News
'Even when you're a hardcore Manitoban and you have your eye trained for finding ticks, you don't have your eye trained for looking for something super tiny. You're looking for the wood tick, which is larger,' Rochon said.
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Rochon adds that black-legged ticks can also carry other bacterium and parasites that are harmful to humans, which is why vigilance is key.
'Not all black-legged ticks are infected with pathogens, but you can't tell by looking at it. So you should, by default, want to protect yourself from any tick bite at any time,' Rochon said.
'My saying is, if you've been playing outside, if there's not snow on the ground, you need a daily tick check.'