Reply To: MSA and Lyme Disease

[Jim P]

Lyme disease is not officially recognised as being endemic in Australia – this does not mean that it does not exist here, but the medical community foes not believe it to be so. As far as I am aware, everyone with recognised Lyme disease caught it outside Australia. However, there is a group of people with “Lyme like” symptoms who say that they have Lyme disease caught in Australia but the existence of the disease in these people is controversial. Because multiple system atrophy is only a rare complication of Lyme disease, and there are few cases of Lyme disease in Australia, I would be surprised if there were any patients with Lyme-related MSA in Australia.