Lyme Disease in Australia, or why our governement needs to step up

Hi guys,
Today is a little bit different because I want to discuss a pretty shitty situation that's been going on in Australia for countless years. We actually have a lot of stuff that needs addressing, like any 1st world country that is a result of colonialisation, but this little rant is about Lyme Disease.

Now, as I'm sure most of you know, Lyme Disease is a well known illness that occurs when bacteria from a tick bite infects the host. It can cause a whole range of symptoms, many of them debilitating and baffling, and because no one person has the exact same symptoms of another, it can be hard to diagnose and many people spend years being told they have MS or neurological illnesses when, in fact, they have Lyme Disease.

Unfortunately our government here in Australia refuses to acknowledge that Lyme Disease occurs in this wide brown land, relying on a flawed study that supposedly showed that our ticks do not carry the bacteria responsible for the disease, even though other studies have shown that yes, our ticks do  carry the bacteria.

What this means is that people presenting with the symptoms of Lyme Disease are not afforded effective treatment, to the point where people have actually been harmed by hospitals  providing treatment detrimental to the patient because they refused to acknowledge the illness.

I cannot imagine how frustrating and simply soul crushing it must be to live with something so devastating, only to be told that's not what you have and to be denied effective treatment.

So, in recognition of this situation, and in part as a gesture to a young woman who I have met on one of the Australian nail appreciation pages who is suffering from late stage Lyme Disease, I decided to do my nails as part of "nails for lyme awareness".

For this manicure I used a white base, Sally Hansen's Xtreme Wear "White On", and used Arcane Lacquer's "Little Quibble" and Rimmel 60 Seconds "Camouflage" for the green gradient.
I then used a generous coat of Essence "Quick Dry" top coat to help blend the colours even more, waited til that was reasonably dry and then whacked on a coat of Essence "101 Dalmations" glitter topper. I finished it all off with some Poshé topcoat and voila! There you have it;
My "Lyme Disease Awareness" mani.

If you want to find out more about Lyme Disease in Australia you can read about it here and this gives you an idea of the uphill battle those doctors who do recognise Lyme Disease face in trying to treat their patients effectively.

Here's hoping that our government steps up and does the right thing, sooner rather than later.
Em x