Insight: Oct 25

Tomorrow Insight hears from patients who have been suffering from unexplainable symptoms and the doctors who are faced with a decision of how to treat them.

We know that ticks can make us sick.

For many on Sydney’s northern beaches a tick bite can mean no more red meat or dairy.

For others a tick bite can cause flu-like symptoms and a diagnosis of tick typhus or Flinder’s Island spotted fever.

Elite Australian tennis player Samantha Stosur fell ill from a tick bite in 2007 and was diagnosed with Lyme disease. Luckily, 8 weeks of antibiotics and she was back on the court.

But what happens when the medical profession is divided over how to treat you for a tick bite? Many Australians are suffering from chronic symptoms that could be caused by a tick bite, but a diagnosis of Lyme disease is not available to them because the bacteria that causes the infection has never been found in Australian ticks.

In light of this, some doctors prescribe controversial treatments and some doctors refuse to treat.

Chanel recently travelled to Malaysia for hyperthermia treatment and blood ozone therapy in a final attempt to beat her illness. Jesse has been on a high-dose of oral antibiotics for 12 months.

Does the medical profession need to be more open to the possibility of tick borne illnesses? Can doctors provide a diagnosis when they don’t know the cause of the illness?

As a Senate Inquiry examines the evidence for an emerging tick-borne disease in Australia, Insight also asks what we are yet to find out about ticks – and just what could be making us sick?

8:30pm Tuesday on SBS.