The two hats of Amir Khadir in the service of the Lyme disease

PHOTO AGENCE QMI, TOMA ICZKOVITS
The mna Amir Khadir

Marie-Renée Grondin

Friday, march 23, 2018 12:08

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Friday, march 23, 2018 12:08

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For a rare (if not the first) times since he was elected, Amir Khadir, has worn two hats Thursday to a parliamentary committee: the deputy of Quebec solidaire and that of medical doctor, specialist in microbiology and infectious diseases.

• READ ALSO: Two members of parliament put “partisanship aside” in the face of the disease

In effect, the member has had the opportunity to put his knowledge to the table during the parliamentary commission of health and social services (CSSS), which included the Association québécoise de Lyme disease.

The latter has seen its petition, signed by 9,000 persons, be referred to it by the national Assembly for the first time in four years. Of the 82 petitions submitted to the CSSS, none of which had been on since the beginning of the mandate.

With the cooperation of other parliamentary groups, the president of the commission, Richard Merlini, has agreed to share the speaking time allocated to each of the members to allow Amir Khadir, to benefit from a longer period of time to intervene.

“Normally, Mr. the member for Mercier, in a hearing of 60 minutes, you have a speaking time of three minutes, but through the sharing of time that I allocate… that is possible today with the collaboration of all, you have 14 min 30 s. you the floor, Mr. the member for Mercier, because you have your expertise that is special and which will be very useful for our work,” said Mr. Merlini.

“I report to my colleagues that I have developed also expertise on tax evasion, but it does not give me… I teases you. Good. That being said, I first want to thank Dr. Perronne and citizens, groups of citizens who are mobilized to make such a thing possible, for you to think about that,” said a joke the mp.

In the course of its interventions, the member for Mercier said that an “ideological battle,” and that a “war of egos” may have delayed some advances in the matter, that patients “are not properly identified, because (the) tests are not adequate” and that they are often “abandoned”.

He also asked what a centre of research and support of infections such as Lyme disease is established, such that the ex-minister of Health, Yves Bolduc, had previously attempted to introduce.

Amir Khadir will also ask the College of physicians to have the”opening” to allow physicians to initiate antibiotic treatment in people with these chronic infections, “until extensive studies are done”.

A case of “commercial”

Furthermore, in February last, the minister of Health, Gaétan Barrette, had held a press briefing of emergency, in order to “put the record straight” as to the criticisms made by the Parti québécois who accused the government of neglecting the patients with Lyme disease.

He had argued that if the United States would seem to offer the diagnostics most relevant to Quebec, it is because some american doctors make a case for “commercial”.

“Charlatanism [medicine], it exists for commercial reasons south of the border,” he said.

It was recognized, however, that “what is unclear here is blur also in the United States”, by advocating that the diagnosis of the disease in its chronic form can be very difficult and confusing.