Small risk of developing symptomatic tick-borne diseases following a tick bite in the Netherlands

Abstract

BackgroundIn The Netherlands, the incidence of Lyme borreliosis is on the rise. Besides its causative agent, Borrelia burgdorferi s.l., other potential pathogens like Rickettsia, Babesia and Ehrlichia species are present in Ixodes ricinus ticks. The risk of disease associated with these microorganisms after tick-bites remains, however, largely unclear. A prospective study was performed to investigate how many persons with tick-bites develop localized or systemic symptoms and whether these are associated with tick-borne microorganisms.ResultsIn total, 297 Ixodes ricinus ticks were collected from 246 study participants who consulted a general practitioner on the island of Ameland for tick bites. Ticks were subjected to PCR to detect DNA of Borrelia burgdorferi s.l., Rickettsia spp., Babesia spp. or Ehrlichia/Anaplasma spp.. Sixteen percent of the collected ticks were positive for Borrelia burgdorferi s.l., 19% for Rickettsia spp., 12% for Ehrlichia/Anaplasma spp. and 10% for Babesia spp.. At least six months after the tick bite, study participants were interviewed on symptoms by means of a standard questionnaire. 14 out of 193 participants (8.3%) reported reddening at the bite site and 6 participants (4.1%) reported systemic symptoms. No association between symptoms and tick-borne microorganisms was found. Attachment duration ≥24 h was positively associated with reddening at the bite site and systemic symptoms. Using logistic regression techniques, reddening was positively correlated with presence of Borrelia afzelii, and having 'any symptoms' was positively associated with attachment duration.ConclusionThe risk of contracting acute Lyme borreliosis, rickettsiosis, babesiosis or ehrlichiosis from a single tick bite was <1% in this study population.

Prevalence of <i>Borrelia burgdorferi</i> in ticks removed from skin of people and circumstances of being bitten – research from the area of Poland, 2012–2014

“…16%), whilst the percentage of infected larvae accounted for approx. 2% [41]. These studies indicate considerable differences in the individual forms of development of infected ticks, with a predominance of the adult form and a minor proportion of specimens infected in the larval stage.…”

“…Nymphs were also prevalent in the Swiss study (64%), with significantly fewer females (33.3%) and larvae (1.6%) [40]. By contrast, the breakdown of the Dutch research was 56% of nymphs, 28% of females and 16% of the larvae [41]. Nymphs also prevailed in the Italian research (41%), with less females (34.6%) and the least larvae (8.4%) [43]which cause effects in animals and humans, commonly referred to as to tick-borne diseases (TBDs.…”

“…This study was conducted throughout the entire year. By contrast, in a study conducted in an endemic area in Switzerland between 2003 and 2005, the [41].…”

A retrospective serological survey on human babesiosis in Belgium

“…B. microti is a natural parasite of microtine rodents and occurs mainly in the United States. However, a case of autochthonous B. microti infection has been confirmed in a German patient with an acute myeloid leukaemia [7], and serological evidence of human B. microti infections in a number of different European countries has been reported ( Table 1) [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23].…”

A STING from a Tick : Epidemiology, Ecology and Clinical Aspects of Lyme Borreliosis

“…This means that ticks attached to these sites fed for a longer time before they are detected, which would be more permissive for a potential Borrelia transmission (Crippa et al, 2002;Kahl et al, 1998). It has earlier been shown that tick-bitten people that remove ticks later than 24 hours of tick attachment, as self-estimated by the bitten persons, are more likely to develop localized and systemic symptoms (Tijsse-Klasen et al, 2011), probably due to injected tick salivary gland proteins and/or due to transmitted pathogens. We observed that participants who contracted a Borrelia infection (seroconversion) during the three-month study period detected and removed "their" Borrelia-infected ticks later (median 58 hours) than non-infected participants bitten by Borrelia-infected ticks (median 29 hours, IV).…”