{"id":22008,"date":"2019-06-06T15:27:50","date_gmt":"2019-06-06T19:27:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/?p=22008"},"modified":"2019-06-06T15:29:06","modified_gmt":"2019-06-06T19:29:06","slug":"ndps-mantha-calls-on-ford-to-take-action-against-spread-of-lyme-disease-in-ontario","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/2019\/06\/06\/ndps-mantha-calls-on-ford-to-take-action-against-spread-of-lyme-disease-in-ontario\/","title":{"rendered":"NDP’s Mantha calls on Ford to take action against spread of Lyme disease in Ontario"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

NDP MPP Michael Mantha introduced a motion on Thursday calling on the Ford government to stop delaying and take immediate action against the growing cases of Lyme disease in Ontario.<\/p>\n

\u201cOntario has the highest number of cases of Lyme disease in the country, and the number is growing,” said Mantha, MPP for Algoma-Manitoulin.\u00a0“People are worried about contracting Lyme disease. \u00a0And too many are already suffering with the debilitating disease.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis government has an action plan in its hands today to tackle Lyme disease.\u00a0 Doug Ford needs to take action on that plan now to stop the spread of the disease and help Ontarians with this health crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mantha was joined at a Queen\u2019s Park press conference by Monique Hachey who shared her experience of her struggle with Lyme disease in Ontario.\u00a0 \u201cI support Mike\u2019s motion 110 per cent because most people that suffer from Lyme disease don\u2019t necessarily have the same financial and family support that I did,\u201d said Hachey.\u00a0 \u201cNeeding to travel to other countries and spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to get the treatment you need isn\u2019t fair.\u00a0 People are suffering here in Ontario and the government isn\u2019t doing anything about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mantha\u2019s NDP motion asks the province to take action on the 10 recommendations in the Report of the Lyme Disease and Tick-Borne Illnesses Task Force. \u00a0Mantha was a member of the non-partisan task force that included patients, medical doctors,\u00a0researchers, Ministry of Health officials, health care professionals and advocates.<\/p>\n

The report complemented the work of Public Health Ontario and Health Quality Ontario in the management of tick bites and informed the Ministry of Health\u2019s Lyme disease policy and programming.\u00a0 The report was accepted by the previous Liberal government, but the recommendations were not implemented. The report has also been wholeheartedly supported by many organizations across the province and the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cChronic Lyme disease has the potential to affect every system in the body and can result in paralysis,\u201d Mantha said.\u00a0 \u201cThe Ford government can take action now to stop the spread of Lyme disease and to treat Ontarians suffering from it today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Northwestern Ontario faces the highest infection prevalence of Lyme disease in Canada.\u00a0 A research study on Corkscrew Island, located 20 kilometres southwest of Kenora, found that Lyme disease was found in eight species of ticks, with 41 per cent testing positive for Lyme disease.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe risk of Lyme disease is potentially at crisis levels in Ontario. This government can, and must, take action now to protect the people of northwestern Ontario and protect families across this province,\u201d said Mantha.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The 10 recommendations from the <\/strong>Lyme Disease and Tick-Borne Illnesses Task Force are as follows:<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Establish centres of excellence for tick-borne illnesses with all stakeholders, including patients and patient advocates and caregivers, involved in the development processes.<\/li>\n
  2. Conduct a review of current clinical practice guidelines focused on the assessment, treatment, and prevention of Lyme disease and other tick-borne illnesses.<\/li>\n
  3. Improve communications to regulated health professionals regarding standards of practice for diagnosing and treating Lyme disease and other tick-borne illnesses.<\/li>\n
  4. Provide professional education opportunities for regulated health professionals and establish a coordinated care model for patients with Lyme disease and other tick-borne illnesses at all stages of these diseases.<\/li>\n
  5. Improve education and awareness of tick-borne illnesses among the general public.<\/li>\n
  6. Continue engagement with school boards, community groups, associations, and other provincial ministries to highlight importance of tick-borne illness prevention.<\/li>\n
  7. Establish a community-based research blueprint for tick-borne illnesses with principles of inquiry and an implementation process.<\/li>\n
  8. Review current testing methodologies for diagnosing Lyme disease and other tick-borne illnesses.<\/li>\n
  9. Conduct a review of current tick surveillance activities in Ontario.<\/li>\n
  10. Establish a task force with tick-borne illness expertise and engagement with all stakeholders to provide ongoing advice and to review an annual report on progress of implementing Ontario\u2019s 10-Step Education and Awareness Plan and the recommended actions from this report.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Link to Press Conference<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    NDP MPP Michael Mantha introduced a motion on Thursday calling on the Ford government to stop delaying and take immediate action against the growing cases of Lyme disease in Ontario. \u201cOntario has the highest number of cases of Lyme disease in the country, and the number is growing,” said Mantha, MPP for Algoma-Manitoulin.\u00a0“People are worried …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":22011,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[1468],"class_list":["post-22008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","tag-lyme-disease"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-29 07:28:05","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22008"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22008\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22012,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22008\/revisions\/22012"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}