TikTok personality Kyle Prue has shared with viewers that he has struggled with Lyme disease since being diagnosed at the age of 17.
The content creator, 26, was emboldened to tell his story amid the mixed reactions to Bella Hadid’s recent revelation that she has finally healed from Lyme disease after an intensive five-month treatment.
According to Prue, as someone who has also contended with Lyme disease for almost a decade, he found it demoralising watching as people online questioned the model’s claims about her health.
“Punching down at sick people in the name of celebrity gossip? Man, it’s felt really f***ing horrible. And really alienating,” the TikToker said.
The discourse surrounding Hadid’s struggle, and that of other celebrities who suffer from Lyme disease like Justin Bieber, led Prue to make a TikTok video to set the record straight.
In the video shared on Thursday, Prue started off by sharing that he has suffered from the illness for “the majority of [his] life” and claiming that some of his organs are “non-functioning” as a result. And while the YouTuber told viewers that he wouldn’t detail “all the ways” in which he has suffered, he did share that he has to “take pills every single day of my life - until I die - in order to compensate” for the damage the disease has allegedly caused.
Prue also said he was shocked to see Hadid’s heartfelt Instagram statement about her own struggles with Lyme met with scepticism and ridicule: “Instead of this being met with sympathy, which I would expect, I have seen it met with a lot of vitriol and a lot of conspiracy speculation.”
He also took the opportunity to address theories about the disease that have circulated on social media, including claims Lyme disease is an easily treatable disease borne from a bug bite. While Lyme disease is in fact vector borne –meaning transmitted by either a mosquito, flea or tick - there are often complications suffered by the estimated 476,000 people diagnosed and treated each year.
According to the CDC, Lyme, which is caused by the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi, can cause many complications in different ways, including permanent joint damage caused by Lyme arthritis, leading patients to a require pacemakers due to Lyme carditis, or encountering neurological Lyme, a spread of the disease to the spinal chord and nerves.
The disease is typically treated with a course of antibiotics, according to the NHS, while those experiencing severe symptoms - such as extreme fatigue, chronic pain and/or depression - may be referred to a specialist for stronger antibiotics. The majority of those infected will make a full recovery within a few months. However, infection does not lead to lifelong immunity and it is possible for sufferers to be re-infected and develop the disease again.
According to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIH), in some patients, “symptoms, such as fatigue, pain and joint and muscle aches, persist even after treatment, a condition termed Post Treatment Lyme Disease Syndrome (PTLDS)”.
According to Prue, he’s found the discourse about the disease “emotionally affecting”.
“I have heard it said that it’s a fake illness that rich people have made up ... Basically [people are] saying that Lyme disease does not actually really exist, at least not in the long-term sense,” Prue said.
“I wasn’t trying to cover anything up,” he continued of his diagnosis at 17. “I was just sick.”
Prue’s TikTok video was a departure from his usual content. He is best known for his TikTok series How To Piss Off Men as well as his YouTube series Rabbit. He’s also the founder of Sparking Literacy, a nonprofit focused on encouraging teenagers to read and write.
According to the TikToker, he had not shared his Lyme diagnosis prior out of fear of being “belittled”.
