‘DSCATT’ and the Clinical Pathway

See also Australian Lyme?

What is DSCATT?

The Australian Government’s current position is that classical Lyme disease, caused by the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi, cannot be contracted in Australia. This is due to a perceived lack of evidence that Australian ticks carry this bacterium.

In 2018, to replace the terms Lyme and Lyme-like illness, the Australian Government Department of Health created the term Debilitating Symptom Complexes Attributed to Ticks (DSCATT) to describe chronic, debilitating illnesses associated with tick bites.  

DSCATT is not a diagnosable disease but a descriptive label. Despite patients testing positive for Lyme and its common co-infections, health authorities regard these patients as having DSCATT and claim that the cause is still unknown. Government-funded research regarding DSCATT’s etiology is still underway (see Government Engagement).

The Lyme Disease Association of Australia (LDAA) rejects the term Debilitating Symptom Complexes Attributed to Ticks (DSCATT) and the DSCATT Clinical Pathway. The introduction of the label and the Clinical Pathway has made diagnosis and treatment inaccessible for patients who have not travelled overseas.

DSCATT Clinical Pathway

The Department of Health will not entertain the possibility that patients have Lyme disease unless they have travelled overseas. If they haven’t travelled, they go so far as advising practitioners not to test for Lyme disease, regardless of the symptoms observed.

According to the DSCATT Clinical Pathway, if the patient has travelled overseas and has Lyme symptoms, they should be referred to an infectious disease specialist. They may also be referred to an infectious disease specialist if one of several recognised Australian tick-borne diseases (see Co-infections) is suspected.

If the practitioner follows the DSCATT Clinical Pathway, the best they can do for a patient is a specialist referral or symptom management. No further investigation into a diagnosis is required.

Sixty concerned international scientists, practitioners and advocates endorsed the LDAA’s 2021 response to the DSCATT Clinical Pathway.

The Australian Centre for Disease Control information on DSCATT.

There is a wide gap between current health policy and the LDAA’s anecdotal evidence from hundreds of patients, many of whom have positive Lyme tests from accredited laboratories outside Australia.

See also Diagnosis and Treatment.