Adam Prudhomme
Editor
Queen’s University Masters student Emilie Norris-Roozmon is seeking insight from anyone who has ever been bitten by a tick.
The MSc candidate in Biology is asking adults 18 and older who have ever experienced a tick bite to fill out an online survey at www.bit.ly/Tick-Survey. The anonymous survey is about 10-30 minutes in length and requires participants to sign a consent form.
The purpose is to gather firsthand accounts of symptoms suffered following a bite in an effort to eliminate misdiagnosis of tick borne diseases such as Lyme. The questions will gather information on symptom clusters as well as the patient interactions between time of treatment and prescriptions. Norris-Roozmon notes it’s a subject that is understudied in Canada.
“We want to look at citizens for insight because they of course have so much more knowledge of this than someone who hasn’t experienced this disease,” said Norris-Roozmon. “I’ve spoken with a lot of people who are chronically ill. They’re very frustrated and they want us to listen to what their experience was and find a cure. They feel like they haven’t been listened to.”
Queen’s University Masters student Emilie Norris-Roozmon in the field searching for ticks. Submitted photo.
Lennox and Addington County serves as a good fit for her study, as Eastern Ontario has the largest cluster of ticks in Canada.
The timing of the launch of Norris-Roozman’s study couldn’t be better. Not only is May known as Lyme Disease Awareness Month, but it’s also the typical start of tick season. Experts expect this year to be a particularly bad one for tick bites not only due to climate change keeping ticks active for longer, but also based on the fact several Canadians are headed to nature trails to get outside while observing physical distancing protocols.
“Whether symptoms are severe or mild to non-existent, we think this kind of data is valuable and under-utilized in the study of tick borne disease,” she adds.
Early and proper diagnosis can make a huge difference in a patient’s outcome following a tick bite.
“A lot of the time symptoms are not looked at with tick borne disease, just because they’re looked at as non-specific,” said Norris-Roozman. “There’s a few of them, like the classic Erythema Migrans, the bulls-eye rash. If people get that then their tick treatment is usually pretty good. They just show that and they get right on antibiotics. When they have less specific symptoms then their care lasts much longer and it takes a long time before they go on treatment. After 72 hours of being bitten by a tick, if you have antibiotic treatment thereafter, it’s not very effective.”
Lyme is just one disease that can be transmitted through tick bite. Others include Babesiosis, Anaplasmosis and Powassan diseases.
Her survey, which will be conducted in collaboration with her supervisors Dr. Robert Colautti and Dr. Rylan Egan, will be accepting respondents until around November, which is typically when the weather gets cold enough to make ticks go dormants. She’ll compile the data over the winter and then use it to defend her thesis in 2021.
She’s hopeful the study will be the first step towards improving the treatment of those who contract tick borne diseases in Ontario.