Epidemiological, clinical and diagnostic characteristics of Lyme disease with patients in Vojvodina, Serbia

Abstract

Lyme disease is a multisystemic infection with zoonotic character, caused by bacteria Borrelia burgdorferi. In Europe, Lyme disease is spread via ticks from Ixodes genus. Variations have been noticed in the number of the newly registered cases, as in the clinical manifestation of this infection in relation to genospecies of the agent. Apart from that, there are significant differences in diagnosing and interpreting the laboratory findings. The aim of this work is to present epidemiological, clinical and diagnostic features of Lyme disease with people in Vojvodina, Serbia. Altogether 132 patients bitten by a tick were included in the research. Clinical, epidemiological and laboratory tests were performed on them in accordance with the existing defined criteria. For the serological diagnostics ELISA and immunoblot tests were used. In order to prove the existence of B. burgdorferi in ticks, using a dark field microscopy, a total of 152 ticks removed from the patients' bodies were examined. The research was conducted during 2011. year. During the observed period Lyme disease was diagnosed with 58 patients bitten by a tick. With most of them ticks were removed by a professional (91) and completely (111). For most patients (70%) conditions were met for the transmission of the agent of Lyme disease, since ticks had spent more than 3 days in their skin. With one seronegative patient Borrelia burdgorferi was isolated from a skin bioptate from the rim of erythema migrans. A rate of ticks infection with B. burgdorferi of 19.7% was found. Based on the results of the research one can conclude that Lyme disease is endemically present with people in Vojvodina, and that the observed characteristics of this infection correspond to the reports of other European authors.