If this CTV News/W5 special report is any indication, problems with Lyme disease are even worse in Canada than they are in the United States, in terms of getting diagnosis and treatment, because doctors assume Lyme disease exists only in the use U.S., as if ticks couldn't possibly cross the border from New York to Ontario or so forth.

It is so upsetting to realize that medical doctors, who ought to have a great grasp of the complexity of biology and ecosystems, seem so often unable to fathom perfectly reasonable notions of disease spread and so quickly jump to the conclusion that psychiatric care is needed---a field in which they typically have little or no training.  This is a case where the human tendency to limit one's own perceptions and religiously maintain beliefs against evidence is truly a crime.

W5: Out of the Wild: Out of the Wild, part one

An illness like Lyme disease, that can be caught in the outdoors, should be a priority for Canadian doctors to diagnose. Instead, the tiny microbe is often missed and patients' complaints often dismissed.

Critics and Lyme disease sufferers say their illness isn't taken seriously enough and the 'ignorance' and 'arrogance' of Canadian health agencies has driven them to desperation.