THE risk of catching potentially deadly Lyme disease is everywhere, with thousands more victims across Scotland than official data show, a scientist has warned.
Just 242 Scottish cases were recorded last year while the whole of the UK registers only a few thousand annual diagnoses of the disease, which is spread by bites from infected ticks.
Yet growing evidence highlighting significant rises in Lyme disease around the world and escalating numbers in Scotland have fuelled fears that it is greatly under-reported here. A study at one Highlands medical practice has suggested the number of cases across Britain could be about 26,000.
Medical entomologist Dr Bruce Alexander is calling for Lyme to be reclassified as a notifiable disease to ensure that doctors have the most accurate data possible on the extent of the problem to help save people from severe pain and in some cases death.
His concern was echoed in a new report from a leading Scottish doctors body and coincides with an increasing number of reports of ticks spreading from the hillside into towns and cities.
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Alexander, who is based at Roslin outside Edinburgh, said: “The official numbers are far below the actual numbers. Most other European countries have an awful lot more cases and Scotland is no different.
“I think there are thousands of cases here each year, not hundreds. It has been suggested that Germany may have a million cases and the US this year upped its estimate of the number of cases there from about 30,000 to 330,000.
“A lot of doctors here are very good at diagnosing it but a lot know very little about it and think it’s just an American disease or a Highland disease. It’s not, it’s all over [the place].”
Next month, his firm, Garrapat, is launching a £20,000 crowdfunding bid for the development of an easy-to-use tick removal device that captures the insects so they can be sent to a lab to see if they are carrying the disease and help doctors decide on treatment.
A study published by the Royal College of Physicians in Edinburgh last month found that, while Lyme disease seemed to be stabilising in the Highlands, laboratory figures were likely to “considerably underestimate the extent of the disease”.
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The authors stated: “We feel that mandatory reporting of all clinical cases is required to give a more accurate understanding of the burden of [Lyme disease] in Scotland and this will allow preventative measures, including the need for antibiotic prophylaxis, to be fully assessed and better targeted within Scotland.”
An 11-fold increase of Lyme disease in Scotland was recorded during the first decade of this century, mirroring similar rises elsewhere.
But there was then a big drop in reported cases after the disease — which can be treated simply using antibiotics if the tick is removed properly and promptly — was removed from the notifiable list in 2012.
The following year, Highland gamekeeper Scott Beattie, 43, died after contracting the disease.
Steven Macdonald, 34, from Glen Lyon, caught Lyme disease just over a decade ago while working as a deerstalker on the Isle of Lewis.
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He told the Scottish Gamekeepers Association (SGA) membership magazine, Scottish Gamekeeper: “I had around 72 ticks on me after a day’s stalking. I thought I got them all off but I must have missed one. It was around two or three weeks later that I started getting flu symptoms but thought nothing of it.”
Not realising he had the disease, he did not seek medical help initially but was later diagnosed after his joints became painful and he lost about five stone in weight.
Macdonald wants regular check-ups for countryside workers, and warned that urban medics needed to be more aware of the risks.
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“There are lots of people from the cities who go for breaks in the countryside. If they are unwell, a lot of city doctors don’t know about Lyme disease. It could be put down to flu.”
The SGA also backed the call for Lyme disease to be reclassified as a notifiable disease. A spokesman said: “Everyone across the country has to be more vigilant because the incidence of Lyme disease is a lot higher than the official records show. Our members, gamekeepers, stalkers, fishermen, will all say that, anecdotally, the number of cases of Lyme disease and ticks is rising.
“More worryingly for the general public, ticks are increasingly found on lower ground too. Before, they were confined to higher rural areas.”
The Scottish government said the disease was still monitored with all positive blood tests investigated by Health Protection Scotland.
A spokeswoman said there were no plans to put Lyme disease back on the notifiable list because the potential for an outbreak of the disease was “minimal, and cases do not require urgent public health action”.
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Lyme disease can be traced back to the 18th century on the Isle of Jura. It was first identified in the mid-1970s in an American town called Lyme.
Last week, The Sunday Times reported other UK scientists warning that visitors to city parks across Britain were at risk of catching Lyme disease as ticks spread from the countryside to the suburbs.
The rise has been blamed on a combination of the growing popularity of outdoor activities and a rising number of ticks linked to the changing climate.