Infections following tickbites. Tick-borne encephalitis and lyme borreliosis — A prospective epidemiological study from tyrol

Abstract

We present here a prospective study on infections following tickbites in military recruits in the province of Tyrol (Austria). 84 recruits experienced tickbites and underwent clinical and serological examination twice at four-week intervals for signs of tick borne encephalitis (TBE)-virus or Borrelia burgdorferi infections. 56 and 50 recruits could be evaluated for TBE-virus and Borrelia infection, respectively. Whereas no recruit was found with clinical or laboratory evidence of TBE-virus infection, two (4%) recruits showed an erythema chronicum migrans as primary manifestation of a Borrelia burgdorferi infection and 11 (20%) recruits had a significant increase in the titer of anti-Borrelia burgdorferi antibodies. Our results support the predominance of a subclinical course of a tick-transmitted borrelia infection in the population under observation, and shed some light on the epidemiological situation of tick-transmitted diseases in Tyrol.

Possible Role of Borreliaburgdorferi Sensu Lato Infection in Lichen Sclerosus

“…A negative serological test result does not exclude previous infection with B burgdorferi, and a positive result may represent an endemic background. [21][22][23] Histological, histochemical, and immunohistochemical detection of microorganisms has turned out to be difficult, frequently unreliable, and almost always extremely time consuming. [23][24][25][26] Cultures with specific media can detect Borrelia species in all clinical forms, but these techniques are not generally available and are unreliable, with less than 50% sensitivity for classic borreliosis.…”

Risk of infections transmitted by arthropods and rodents in forestry workers

“…The results of the screening for serum antibodies to the viruses transmitted through contacts with rodents show that six (4.0%) forestry workers had serum antibodies to PUUV versus one (0.7%) of the clerks. It is interesting to note that four of the PUUV-seropositive individuals worked in areas where 14 clinical cases of HFRS had been diagnosed before [8,18]. Three (2.0%) forestry workers had serum antibiotics to LCMV versus none (0.0%) of the clerks.…”

“…Five of them, who had no serum antibodies to LB in 1989, were seropositive in 1990 [18]. None of these five individuals had developed clinical symptoms suggestive of LB during the period between the two samplings [17,19].…”

Epidemiological survey of tick-borne encephalitis virus and Anaplasma phagocytophilum co-infections in patients from regions of the Czech Republic endemic for tick-borne diseases

“…residents, military personnel, foresters) during the tick season. Whereas the incidence of TBE seroconversions was mostly about ~ 1.6% (0-2.9%) [33][34][35][36], the incidence of HGA-seroconversion events approached ~ 6% (3.2-11.1%) [37][38][39]. Although data from different situations and periods are difficult to compare, an incidence rate of concomitant TBEV and A. phagocytophilum infections in European endemic areas could nonetheless be expected to be of an order of 0.001% (assuming independence, overlapping incubation periods, and a tick season lasting about 25 weeks per year).…”