Lyme Disease in Northern Slovakia (1989-2010): Clinical and Epidemiological Characteristics

Abstract

In recent years, the incidence of Lyme borreliosis has been on an upward trend also as a result of global warming, not only in our region. In the prospective and also retrospective study we have monitored the representation of individual forms of borreliosis in the set of 476 patients treated for this disease for the period of 22 years (1989-2010). From the total set of 476 patients, the treatment was initiated in the early localized stage in 50.84 % (n = 242), and the disease was diagnosed in the early disseminated stage of Lyme disease in 48.32 % (n = 230). The late disseminated stage of the disease has developed only in 4 cases (0.84 %). We focused on the epidemiological history- information about the tick acquisition was confirmed in 47.68 % (n = 227), the vector of the disease transmission, which is a tick in most cases, the seasonality- the highest number of cases of the disease development was in July and August: 39.92 % of the cases (n = 190), and the locality of the disease development with creating the map of sources of Lyme borreliosis in the northern region of Slovakia. We divided the set of patients also according to the risk of exposure to the vectors: the infection was transmitted to humans during recreational activities in 94.11 % (n = 448).