Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 12 December 2013
223. Deputy Seán Kenny asked the Minister for Health if his Department's Lyme disease awareness group will tackle the need to provide better diagnostic tests and treatment for Lyme disease sufferers; and the strategy the scientific advisory committee of the Health Service Executive Health surveillance centre have to deal with Lyme disease. [53519/13]
View answerThe Health Protection Surveillance Centre is establishing a Lyme Borreliosis Group whose aim will be to develop strategies to undertake primary prevention measures in order to minimise the harm caused by Lyme Borreliosis in Ireland based on best international evidence. The remit of the Group will also include raising awareness amongst both clinicians and the general public and exploring ways in which to improve surveillance of neuroborreliosis in Ireland.
A joint Consensus Statement on the Clinical Management of Lyme Borreliosis was produced in November 2012 by the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Health Protection Surveillance Centre, the Infectious Diseases Society of Ireland, the Irish Society of Clinical Microbiologists, the Irish Institute of Clinical Neuroscience and the Irish College of General Practitioners. This Consensus Statement was produced in order to ensure that the management of Lyme Borreliosis is as consistent and as standardised as possible. The Consensus Statement lays out the optimal conditions on the diagnosis and treatment of Lyme Borreliosis in Ireland.
