Continuing increase of tick bites and Lyme disease between 1994 and 2009

Hofhuis, Agnetha; Harms, Margriet; Wijngaard, Cees van den; Sprong, Hein; Pelt, Wilfrid van

doi:10.1016/j.ttbdis.2014.09.006

Cited by 89 publications

(82 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…The incidence of tick bite consultations increased linearly from 191 per 100,000 in 1994 to 564 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2009, and concurrently the incidence of erythema migrans diagnoses increased from 39 to 134 per 100,000 inhabitants [15-18]. Apart from these nationwide accurate incidence rates for tick bites and erythema migrans over time, the incidence of other manifestations of Lyme borreliosis remained unknown.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Physician reported incidence of early and late Lyme borreliosis

Hofhuis

Harms

Bennema

et al. 2015

Parasites & Vectors

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BackgroundLyme borreliosis is the most common vector-borne disease in Europe and North America. The objective of this study is to estimate the incidence of tick bites and Lyme borreliosis, representative of our entire country, including erythema migrans, disseminated Lyme borreliosis and persisting symptoms attributed to Lyme borreliosis.MethodsA questionnaire on clinical diagnoses of Lyme borreliosis was sent to all GPs, company physicians, and medical specialists. To adjust for possible misclassification and telescoping bias, we sent additional questionnaires to categorize reported cases according to likelihood of the diagnosis and to exclude cases diagnosed outside the target period.ResultsAdjusted annual incidence rate for disseminated Lyme borreliosis was 7.7 GP reports per 100,000 inhabitants, and for persisting symptoms attributed to Lyme borreliosis was 5.5 GP reports per 100,000 inhabitants, i.e. approximately 1,300 and 900 cases respectively. GP consultations for tick bites and erythema migrans diagnoses were 495 and 132 per 100,000 inhabitants, respectively, i.e. 82,000 and 22,000 cases in 2010.ConclusionsThis is the first reported nationwide physician survey on the incidence of tick bites and the whole range of manifestations of Lyme borreliosis, including persisting symptoms attributed to Lyme borreliosis. This is crucial for complete assessment of the public health impact of Lyme borreliosis.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13071-015-0777-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Physician reported incidence of early and late Lyme borreliosis

Hofhuis

Harms

Bennema

et al. 2015

Parasites & Vectors

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“…N. mikurensis is relatively high, and is expected to be on the rise. In The Netherlands, the incidence of (reported) tick bites and erythema migrans has increased three-to fourfold over the past 2 decades, which could be explained partially by a concomitant increase in diagnostic requests and/or the total number of questing I. ricinus (Hofhuis et al 2015;Sprong et al 2012). Environmental (e.g.…”

Section: Public Health Relevancementioning

confidence: 99%

Neoehrlichiosis: an emerging tick-borne zoonosis caused by Candidatus Neoehrlichia mikurensis

et al. 2015

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Candidatus Neoehrlichia mikurensis is an emerging tick-borne pathogen causing a systemic inflammatory syndrome mostly in persons with underlying hematologic or autoimmune diseases. As it is neither well-known nor well-recognized, it might be misdiagnosed as recurrence of the underlying disease or as an unrelated arteriosclerotic vascular event. The pathogen is transmitted by hard ticks of the genus Ixodes and is closely associated with rodents in which transplacental transmission occurs. Transovarial transmission in ticks has not yet been shown. Infection rates vary greatly in ticks and rodents, but the causes for its spatiotemporal variations are largely unknown. This review summarizes the current state of knowledge on the geographical distribution and clinical importance of Ca. N. mikurensis. By elucidating the life history traits of this pathogen and determining more accurately its incidence in the human population, a better assessment of its public health relevance can be made. Most urgent research needs are the in vitro-cultivation of the pathogen, the development of specific serological tests, the determination of the full genomic sequence, the routine implementation of molecular diagnosis in diseased patients with a particular panel of underlying diseases, and promoting the knowledge about neoehrlichiosis among general practitioners, hospital physicians and the risk groups such as forest workers or immune-compromised people to raise awareness about this disease that can easily be treated when correctly diagnosed.

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“…However, a review by Rizzoli et al (2011) on the situation regarding Lyme borreliosis in Europe indicates that even though the overall prevalence of Lyme borreliosis may be stabilizing, its geographical distribution is still increasing. Also, Lyme borreliosis incidence has increased significantly in recent decades in specific areas, such as The Netherlands and Belgium (Gassner and Overbeek 2007;Hofhuis et al 2015). A particular reason for concern is the high prevalence of B. burgdorferi s.l.…”

Section: Emerging Tick-borne Pathogens In Europementioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, in The Netherlands [24,000 cases of Lyme borreliosis are reported annually, whereas reports of other tickborne pathogens are rare in spite of their presence in I. ricinus (Hofhuis et al 2015). Tickborne diseases are a classic example of a disease system where humans and wild or captive animals share pathogens and where a 'one health' approach is needed to control the disease.…”

Section: Public Health and One Healthmentioning

confidence: 99%