Prevention of Lyme Borreliosis

Abstract

Lyme borreliosis is an emerging infectious disease in both the Old and New worlds. The challenge for prevention of this tick-borne infection is greater than with other vector-borne infections because of the complex life cycle of its tick vectors. This can be exploited to decrease transmission to humans at multiple levels. (Hayes and Piesman, 2003). The opportunities for intervention can be divided into three main areas: prevention of tick exposure and of tick bites, prevention of infection after a tick bite, and immunization. Prevention of tick exposure includes the control of ticks and their reservoirs and hosts in nature, by multipronged efforts at landscape management, acaricide application, biological control of ticks, and control of host animals. Tick control and investigations aimed at decreasing the spirochetal burden in nature are discussed briefly in this chapter. For more information the reader is referred to comprehensive reviews, (Hayes