Lord Greaves – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Greaves on 2015-10-28.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the discovery of an illness similar to Lyme Disease, caused by the tick-borne bacteria Borrelia miyamotoi, which is reported to be resistant to antibiotics.

Lord Prior of Brampton

Public Health England (PHE) regularly reviews the scientific literature and in response to reports of B. miyamotoi being present in ticks in other countries, PHE has studied relevant ticks in England, finding that three out of 954 ticks studied contained B. miyamotoi, compared to 40 that were positive for the bacterium responsible for Lyme disease. The public health significance of B. miyamotoi has been unclear, but accumulating published evidence from around 50 human cases, suggests it can cause disease in man, most commonly a febrile illness.

To date, no human infections with Borrelia miyamotoi have been reported in the United Kingdom. All cases of B. miyamotoi infection reported in the scientific literature to date made a full recovery following treatment with appropriate antibiotics.