COUNTY - Five Lunenburg County patients are now suddenly panicked six months following tests for Lyme disease that had come back negative.

 Provincial medical officer Dr. Robert Strang said five people from the South Shore were told they did not have Lyme disease, but Health Canada's lab in Winnipeg had made a mistake and the tests were positive after all.

 A man from Mahone Bay was one of the five South Shore people who received the wrong results. He does not want his name used. In an interview, he said he went to his family physician with a rash on his stomach that seemed to be growing.

 "I just woke up one morning with three rashes on me," he said, noting he does not recall being bitten by a tick. However, he said the rash prompted a request to test for Lyme disease.

 His family physician ordered a test. Dr. Strang said in Nova Scotia a screening test is used. Only positive results from the Lyme disease screen are sent to the national lab in Winnipeg for confirmatory testing. The patient said when the results of that test returned a negative result, he thought no more about Lyme disease. And, in the meantime, the rashes disappeared.

 But last month he was contacted by his physician's office requesting him to come in to review blood test results.

 "I thought he was mixed up because I hadn't gone for blood work in six months," he said. He was in disbelief when his physician told him the lab had made a mistake and he had tested positive for Lyme disease last fall.

 The man said he was shocked to think that since last fall he's had Lyme disease and didn't know it. He said maybe the symptoms he's been experiencing, such as achy joints and muscles and fatigue, are related to the progression of this disease.

 "I'm quite upset because if they would have treated me back in September, I would have had a better chance of fighting the long-term symptoms," he said, noting he has started taking the antibiotics prescribed by his family physician.

 But according to Health Canada, the sooner treatment starts, the better the outcome for the patient.

 Health Canada reports that most cases of Lyme disease can be cured with a two- to four-week treatment of antibiotics. But patients diagnosed in the later stages of the disease "can have persistent or recurrent symptoms requiring a longer course of antibiotic treatment."

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 The symptoms of the disease usually occur in three stages. The first sign of infection is usually a circular rash. Other common symptoms include fatigue, chills, fever, headache, muscle and joint pain and swollen lymph nodes.

 If untreated, the second stage of the disease can last up to several months and include central and peripheral nervous system disorders, multiple skin rashes, arthritis and arthritic symptoms, heart palpitations and extreme fatigue and general weakness. If the disease is still untreated, the third stage can last months to years with symptoms that can include recurring arthritis and neurological problems.

 "I don't know if treating it now is going to be effective," said the patient. "Three or four years down the road, symptoms may reappear."

 The patient said he can't understand why he just wasn't prescribed the antibiotics in the first place, especially since he had the rash and he tested positive in the screening test.

 "It is only antibiotics," he said. "Whether it was Lyme disease or not, going on antibiotics for three weeks is better than finding out six months later you have the disease."

 Dr. Robert Strang said the patient is among 24 people from across the country who received false negative tests. Of those patients, 13 were from NovaScotia.

 Dr. Strang said the error was identified through a quality assurance process.

posted on 03/08/11