Abstract
Lyme borreliosis (LB) presents as one of the most frequent tick-borne diseases in Europe with more than 85,000 reported cases every year. The transport of this disease on humans is by tick species of the genus Ixodes. In our work, we aimed to perform a retrospective analysis of the incidence and seasonality of Lyme borreliosis during the period 1999–2008 in Slovakia. For our analysis, we used all the relevant data about the patients with Lyme borreliosis reported in the Epidemiological Informative System of Communicable Diseases in Slovakia during the decade of 1999–2008. During the observed period, there were 7,349 reported cases of LB in Slovakia. Whereas the incidence of early localized infection did not change during the observed period, there was a significant increase in the incidence of early disseminated infection and late persistent infection of LB. Seventy per cent of all patients was infected by tick bite. LB was more frequently reported in females than in males (56.1% vs. 43.9%; p < 0.05), and the most involved age group was the productive age (15–64 years). The incidence of disseminated infection and persistent infection was rising with increasing age. Regarding the seasonality of LB, we found the highest incidence during the summer months. Comparing the situation of LB in 1999 and 2008, significant increase in the number of reported cases was in April and June and from September to November (p < 0.05). Our epidemiological analysis confirmed that Lyme borreliosis requires increased attention due to its increasing incidence.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Bennet L, Stjernberg L, Berglund J (2007) Effect of gender on clinical and epidemiologic features of Lyme borreliosis. Vector Borne Zoonotic Dis 7:34–41
Blanc F (2009) Epidemiology of Lyme borreliosis and neuroborreliosis in France. Rev Neurol 16:694–701
Brownstein JS, Holford TR, Fish D (2005) Effect of climate change on Lyme disease risk in north America. EcoHealth 2:38–46
Bullova E, Vichova B, Lukan M, Majlathova V, Petko B (2008) Distribution and prevalence of Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato infection along an altitudinal gradient. In: Natural focal infection. Slovak Society for Parasitology at the SAS, Kosice, p.40
Burgdorfer W, Barbour AG, Hayes SF, Benach JL, Grunwaldt E, Davis JP (1982) Lyme disease - a tick borne spirochetosis? Science 216:1317–1319
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2008) Surveillance for Lyme disease - United States, 1992–2006. Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 57:S1–S9
Christova I, Komitova R (2004) Clinical and epidemiological features of Lyme borreliosis in Bulgaria. Wien Klin Wochenschr 116:42–46
Collection of Acts Slovak Republic (2007) Act No. 355. Coll. of Acts
Daniel M, Kriz B, Valter J, Kott I, Danielova V (2008) The influence of meteorological conditions of the preceding winter on the incidences of tick-borne encephalitis and Lyme borreliosis in the Czech Republic. Int J Med Microbiol 298:S60–S67
Danielova V, Kliegrova S, Daniel M, Benes C (2008) Influence of climate warming on tick-borne encephalitis expansion to higher altitudes over the last decade (1997–2006) in the highland region (Czech Republic). Cent Eur J Public Health 16:4–11
Fulop B, Poggensee G (2008) Epidemiological situation of Lyme borreliosis in Germany: Surveillance data from six Eastern German States, 2002 to 2006. Parasitol Res 103:S117–S120
Kmety E, Rehacek J, Vyrostekova V, Kocianova E, Gurycova D (1990) Infestation of tick with Borrelia burgdorferi and Francisella tularensis in Slovakia. Bratisl Lek Listy 91:251–266
Lindgren E, Jaenson TGT (2006) Lyme borreliosis in Europe: influences of climate and climate change, epidemiology, ecology and adaptation measures. World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe, Geneva
Margos G, Vollmer SA, Cornet M, Garnier M, Fingerle V, Wilske B, Bormane A, Vitorino L, Collarec-Pereira M, Drancourt M, Kurtenbach K (2009) A new Borrelia species defined by multilocus sequence analysis of housekeeping genes. Appl Environ Microbiol 75:5410–5416
Nau R, Christen HJ, Eiffert H (2009) Lyme disease – current state of knowledge. Dtsch Arztebl Int 106:72–81
Schnarr S, Franz JK, Krause A, Zeidler H (2006) Lyme borreliosis. Best Pract Res Clin Rheumatol 20:1099–1118
Smetanova K, Burri C, Perez D, Gern L, Kocianiova E (2007) Detection and identification of Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato genospecies in ticks from three different regions in Slovakia. Wien Klin Wochenschr 119:534–537
Stanek G (2009) Pandora’s box: pathogens in Ixodes ricinus ticks in Central Europe. Wien Klin Wochenschr 121:673–683
Stanek D, Strle F (2009) Lyme borreliosis: a European perspective on diagnosis and clinical management. Curr Opin Infect Dis 22:450–454
Štefančíková A, Derdáková M, Lenčáková D, Ivanová R, Stanko M, Čisláková L, Peťko B (2008) Serological and molecular detection of Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato and Anaplasmataceae in rodents. Folia Microbiol 53:493–499
Wilske B (2003) Diagnosis of Lyme borreliosis in Europe. Vector Borne Zoonotic Dis 3:215–227
World Health Organization (2008) International travel and health. World Health Organization, Geneva
Acknowledgements
The work was supported by grants SMS 26220120004 and no. 2007/11-SZU-07. We are grateful for the support of the Slovak Ministry of Health and the Centre of Experimental and Clinical Respirology, Jessenius Faculty of Medicine in Martin, Comenius University in Bratislava.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
An erratum to this article is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12223-014-0314-6.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Svihrova, V., Hudeckova, H., Jesenak, M. et al. Lyme borreliosis—analysis of the trends in Slovakia, 1999–2008. Folia Microbiol 56, 270–275 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12223-011-0036-y
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12223-011-0036-y