Where to get Lyme or Tick born disease tests in Thailand

[Garnethoyes]

Does anyone know where it is possible to get tests done for Lyme and other tick born diseases in Thailand ?

[Sheryl]

Lyme disease is a disease of temperate climates and there has never been a case documented in Thailand, nor have studies of ticks in Thailand isolated the organism. So it would be difficult to find a place able to test for it and if your concern stems from a tick bite sustained in Thailand, you do not need to be.

Ticks in Thailand do sometimes carry various rickettsiae, the organisms that cause typhus/ spotted fevers. Most doctors would just treat empirically for these conditions if someone was symptomatic and had a history of tick or other insect bite, but the larger hospitals can probably do serology tests if needed.

If you have had a tick bite and are aysmptomatic, you will have trouble interesting a doctor here in doing any testing and frankly I would not bother - it is not like in countries where Lyme is endemic. If yo udoi develop a febrile illness, of course, be sure to mention the history of tick bite to the doctor treating you.

While people only rarely become ill from tick bites in Thailand, dogs and cats very frequently do, from anaplasmosis and ehrlichosis, neither of which affect humans but which can be very serious in dogs and cats.

[futsukayoi]

Our vet does a blood test and results back in 10 mins

[samuijimmy]

unuseful troll post removed..

[avander]

Lyme disease is a disease of temperate climates and there has never been a case documented in Thailand, nor have studies of ticks in Thailand isolated the organism. So it would be difficult to find a place able to test for it and if your concern stems from a tick bite sustained in Thailand, you do not need to be.

Ticks in Thailand do sometimes carry various rickettsiae, the organisms that cause typhus/ spotted fevers. Most doctors would just treat empirically for these conditions if someone was symptomatic and had a history of tick or other insect bite, but the larger hospitals can probably do serology tests if needed.

If you have had a tick bite and are aysmptomatic, you will have trouble interesting a doctor here in doing any testing and frankly I would not bother - it is not like in countries where Lyme is endemic. If yo udoi develop a febrile illness, of course, be sure to mention the history of tick bite to the doctor treating you.

While people only rarely become ill from tick bites in Thailand, dogs and cats very frequently do, from anaplasmosis and ehrlichosis, neither of which affect humans but which can be very serious in dogs and cats.

Sheryl, Originally from Oz and having had pet dogs most of my life I'm quite familiar with the dangers of ticks there. From anecdotal info here it seemed my dogs are not in much danger from ticks. Can you provide a laymans explanation of the two conditions affecting dogs as a result of tick bites here please?

[bazza40]

Our vet does a blood test and results back in 10 mins

Did you have to bark at him to get him to take the blood sample?

[mpyre]

Even if properly tested 50% of people WITH Lyme (and 6 other similar tick borne illnesses) test negative...it is a dangerous disease if it proceeds untreated to the secondary or tertiary stages. Perhaps the OP thinks they contracted it in another country, and are simply trying to find a testing facility? I've had Lyme and Babeosis 3 times...Please do not mess around if you think you have it.

[Hammock]

I was once bitten by a tick, went to Bumrungrad, used by Bupa insurance, received some medicines, had blood tests and everything ended well. No Lyme was found

[wildewillie89]

On 7/16/2016 at 6:43 AM, Sheryl said:

Lyme disease is a disease of temperate climates and there has never been a case documented in Thailand, nor have studies of ticks in Thailand isolated the organism. So it would be difficult to find a place able to test for it and if your concern stems from a tick bite sustained in Thailand, you do not need to be.

Ticks in Thailand do sometimes carry various rickettsiae, the organisms that cause typhus/ spotted fevers. Most doctors would just treat empirically for these conditions if someone was symptomatic and had a history of tick or other insect bite, but the larger hospitals can probably do serology tests if needed.

If you have had a tick bite and are aysmptomatic, you will have trouble interesting a doctor here in doing any testing and frankly I would not bother - it is not like in countries where Lyme is endemic. If yo udoi develop a febrile illness, of course, be sure to mention the history of tick bite to the doctor treating you.

While people only rarely become ill from tick bites in Thailand, dogs and cats very frequently do, from anaplasmosis and ehrlichosis, neither of which affect humans but which can be very serious in dogs and cats.

I was under the impression an Australian citizen got Lyme disease whilst holidaying in Thailand. I was also under the impression that in a recent talk show in Australia, involving infectious disease experts, Thailand is a country that they have linked patients with Lyme and other tick diseases. I got quite ill recently, and the Thai doctor requested a tick related blood test, but on request they soon found that no laboratory in the area did it (due to their being no documented cases/thus no funding). The science around tick diseases is pretty far behind, even in developed countries...i think the fact that there is no documented cases in Thai may just mean Thai doctors dont understand the disease. However, if Western doctors are linking the disease with patients when they come back from holiday then I think there is some justified reasons for concern. 

[Sophon]

On 16/07/2016 at 0:04 PM, avander said:

Sheryl, Originally from Oz and having had pet dogs most of my life I'm quite familiar with the dangers of ticks there. From anecdotal info here it seemed my dogs are not in much danger from ticks. Can you provide a laymans explanation of the two conditions affecting dogs as a result of tick bites here please?

I don't know where you got that impression from, but it is definitely not true. Even without knowing the situation in Australia I would hazard a guess that the risk is exponentially higher here in Thailand.

 

A couple of years ago one of our dogs went off his food. He was still eating, but seemed less interested in food than before. We took him to the vet and had him tested, and he tested positive for Ehrlichiosis Canis and his kidney function was severely compromised. The rest of our dogs were showing no symptoms at all, but we still took them to be tested "just to be sure". Out of the remaining seven dogs, six tested positive for Ehrlichiosis and two for Anaplasmosis on top of that. Despite having caught the disease early (the remaining dogs had close to normal blood cell, liver and kidney values), and despite treating them with Doxycycline, iron supplements and (for one dog) steroids and blood transfusion, three of our dogs still died. Two died from kidney failure and one from total collapse of the blood platelets. It took six months on Doxycycline before the remaining dogs were all back to normal.

 

Since then we have had two more of our (new) dogs test positive for Ehrlichiosis as well as two more "outside" dogs (dogs that technically belongs to other people, but that we take care of). One of the "outside" dogs had very bad blood cell values (much worse than the one that died) and couldn't even stand up, but luckily no more dogs have died. And these are all dogs that receive Ivermectin every month and we almost never find any ticks on any of them. But not seeing any ticks doesn't necessarily mean that the dog hasn't been bitten by one.

 

The snap test used for checking tick parasite diseases also shows Lyme disease, but our long time vet had never seen any positive test for that disease here in Thailand. Ehrlichiosis Canis and Anaplasmosis on the other hand are endemic everywhere in Thailand, and the risk of your dog getting those diseases is very high. So take whatever preventive measures you can to avoid ticks, and take your dog in for testing if he acts differently than he normally does.

 

Sophon

[avander]

21 minutes ago, Sophon said:

I don't know where you got that impression from, but it is definitely not true. Even without knowing the situation in Australia I would hazard a guess that the risk is exponentially higher here in Thailand.

 

A couple of years ago one of our dogs went off his food. He was still eating, but seemed less interested in food than before. We took him to the vet and had him tested, and he tested positive for Ehrlichiosis Canis and his kidney function was severely compromised. The rest of our dogs were showing no symptoms at all, but we still took them to be tested "just to be sure". Out of the remaining seven dogs, six tested positive for Ehrlichiosis and two for Anaplasmosis on top of that. Despite having caught the disease early (the remaining dogs had close to normal blood cell, liver and kidney values), and despite treating them with Doxycycline, iron supplements and (for one dog) steroids and blood transfusion, three of our dogs still died. Two died from kidney failure and one from total collapse of the blood platelets. It took six months on Doxycycline before the remaining dogs were all back to normal.

 

Since then we have had two more of our (new) dogs test positive for Ehrlichiosis as well as two more "outside" dogs (dogs that technically belongs to other people, but that we take care of). One of the "outside" dogs had very bad blood cell values (much worse than the one that died) and couldn't even stand up, but luckily no more dogs have died. And these are all dogs that receive Ivermectin every month and we almost never find any ticks on any of them. But not seeing any ticks doesn't necessarily mean that the dog hasn't been bitten by one.

 

The snap test used for checking tick parasite diseases also shows Lyme disease, but our long time vet had never seen any positive test for that disease here in Thailand. Ehrlichiosis Canis and Anaplasmosis on the other hand are endemic everywhere in Thailand, and the risk of your dog getting those diseases is very high. So take whatever preventive measures you can to avoid ticks, and take your dog in for testing if he acts differently than he normally does.

 

Sophon

Thanks for the response!!

Since I originally posted one of our 2 small dogs has actually had 2 cases of Ehrlichiosis Canis infection.   Actually this was not very long after my original post in this thread July last year,. We got him off to the Vet after he seemed to develop a fever and went off his food not seeming himself.  We were told we were lucky to bring him in when we did as another week and he would have died.  He had treatment for about two weeks and further blood tests showed he had recovered completely.  

The second time was a couple of weeks ago when the same dog also started to go off his food and did not seem himself generally.  Being forewarned after a small course of tablets he has now recovered.  We also found a couple of ticks on him this time.

 

We use a "cheap" Thai version of a Frontline type product applied externally on the dogs back between the shoulders.  I now assume that this cheap version does not work for the advertised month and may also "wash off" more readily (being mainly house dogs ours get a quick wash every week.  We are now considering more expensive tick collars and/or an injection every month.  We're also giving them both more visual inspections.  

Any advice on recommended brands and/or treatments would be appreciated.  

It's also really strange that only one of our dogs is affected.  The one unaffected seems to be of no interest to the ticks?

[Sheryl]

May I suggest you post this in the Pets forum? There have been many past threads there on this issue and many posters familiar with the problem.

 

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/forum/81-plants-pets-vets-in-thailand/

 

You may also find it helpful to do a search in that forum, it will show many threads , some of them recent

[wildewillie89]

Currently in hospital and the doctor is looking to treat me for Lyme disease, as all other tests came back clear even with persisting symptoms and a background of exposure to ticks. He basically said this notion of Thai not having it is a bunch of crap, it's just many That doctors have zero understanding of it. Which goes in line with Western expert thinking. By the looks of it treating Lyme disease here in Thailand is not out of the ordinary for those who understand it, just no hard tests results for it to be considered a 'documented case'.

 

In terms of keeping ticks off your dog, use Bravecto. It's readily available in Thai now at your vet. About 750 baht for 3 months. Thought would help you out before people got all pedantic and close the topic for 'relevance', rather than actually helping the world with one quick word lol. 

Edited March 31, 2017 by wildewillie89
Add information

[avander]

36 minutes ago, wildewillie89 said:

Currently in hospital and the doctor is looking to treat me for Lyme disease, as all other tests came back clear even with persisting symptoms and a background of exposure to ticks. He basically said this notion of Thai not having it is a bunch of crap, it's just many That doctors have zero understanding of it. Which goes in line with Western expert thinking. By the looks of it treating Lyme disease here in Thailand is not out of the ordinary for those who understand it, just no hard tests results for it to be considered a 'documented case'.

 

In terms of keeping ticks off your dog, use Bravecto. It's readily available in Thai now at your vet. About 750 baht for 3 months. Thought would help you out before people got all pedantic and close the topic for 'relevance', rather than actually helping the world with one quick word lol. 

Thanks for the info.  I hope  for your sake it's not Lymes disease you have.Very unpleasant.  Interesting that it is likely to be here anyway though. 

Best of luck with whatever it is you are suffering. 

[Mia Whitewood]

Hi - I’m replying to this old post as it comes up on google search and if I had listening to some of the Replies that Lyme is not in Thailand I would now have an active case of Lyme disease!!’

 

I was bitten by a tick in Phuket aug 18 i subsequently was very unwell for 3-4 days. I estimate it was on me before detaching voluntarily as it was so engorged it dropped into my lap - so this is how a) I knew I’d been bitten and  started a record of symptoms.

 

i went to two Thai  doctors and spoke to 3 pharmacies who assured me it was not an issue. Luckily having known the risks lymes presents from my father having been in hospital for similar symptoms a year before I was not confident to believe anyone. I searched the very sites and very nearly did not get medicine believing just like some of the supposedly helpful replies it is not an issue but then luckily I read an article how an Australian school  teacher had returned home and suffered illness after a tick bite in Thailand I did not want to take the risk.

 

I brought doxycycline from the pharmacy and self medicated for 3-4 weeks taking it within 72 hours of the tick detaching. Still i returned home and I suffered extreme fatigue, depression low energy and I still do these may last for 6 months. etc I went to the doctors here in the UK 3 times until I had to go private to have all lymes tests taken. These blood tests were  positive for the lymes antibodies and it was confirmed a recent lymes infection had occurrrd but not present so the antibodies were successful. So I can categorically tell you it IS in Thailand!!

 

i will be submitting all evidence to Thailand authorities and I hope the relevant medical advice is given in future to those that need it.

 

 

Edited October 14, 2017 by Mia Whitewood
Edit needed

[wildewillie89]

2 hours ago, Mia Whitewood said:

Hi - I’m replying to this old post as it comes up on google search and if I had listening to some of the Replies that Lyme is not in Thailand I would now have an active case of Lyme disease!!’

 

I was bitten by a tick in Phuket aug 18 i subsequently was very unwell for 3-4 days. I estimate it was on me before detaching voluntarily as it was so engorged it dropped into my lap - so this is how a) I knew I’d been bitten and  started a record of symptoms.

 

i went to two Thai  doctors and spoke to 3 pharmacies who assured me it was not an issue. Luckily having known the risks lymes presents from my father having been in hospital for similar symptoms a year before I was not confident to believe anyone. I searched the very sites and very nearly did not get medicine believing just like some of the supposedly helpful replies it is not an issue but then luckily I read an article how an Australian school  teacher had returned home and suffered illness after a tick bite in Thailand I did not want to take the risk.

 

I brought doxycycline from the pharmacy and self medicated for 3-4 weeks taking it within 72 hours of the tick detaching. Still i returned home and I suffered extreme fatigue, depression low energy and I still do these may last for 6 months. etc I went to the doctors here in the UK 3 times until I had to go private to have all lymes tests taken. These blood tests were  positive for the lymes antibodies and it was confirmed a recent lymes infection had occurrrd but not present so the antibodies were successful. So I can categorically tell you it IS in Thailand!!

 

i will be submitting all evidence to Thailand authorities and I hope the relevant medical advice is given in future to those that need it.

 

 

Some Australians have also been confirmed after a trip to Thailand. The Lyme experts in Australia also belive Thailand has it. 

 

When I had my tick diseases, infection, cancer and rheumatologists all said it's in Thailand. That was at khon kaen university hospital, which one of the better ones in the north-east. 

 

Doctors also told me they treat Lyme, and even started me on a treatment for Lyme. As it turned out it was a singular infection of Ehrlichiosis. 

 

Like many counties, I think the authorities just want to refuse they have it. Similar stories are occurring in Australia also so labs are searching long and hard to find ticks that have the bacteria to prove it is in the country. 

Edited October 15, 2017 by wildewillie89

[Sheryl]

It has always been known that there were several tick-born diseases in Thailand (e.g. scrub typhus) so I cannot imagine anyone saying a tick bite was of no importance or would not cause illness.

 

However the presence of Lyme disease has not yet been demonstrated here.

 

There is considerable cross-reaction on antibody-based tests between Lyme antibodies and antibodies to the other endemic tick-borne diseases in Thailand so I would hesitate to assume that someone diagnosed with Lyme in a Western country after a tick bite in Thailand had Lyme as opposed to one of the known endemic tick-born illnesses, unless very advanced tests were conducted.

 

The treatment for all these diseases is the same famly of antibiotic so in that sense, the distinction is not vital, thought the duration of treatment is longer for Lyme.

[Scott]

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