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The risk of acquiring tick-bites in south-eastern Sweden
Responsible organisation
2002 (English)Conference paper, Oral presentation only (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

The aim of the survey was to study the risk of tick-bites when exposed during daily activities in a tick endemic region in the south-eastern part of Sweden, between May 2000-March 2001. All the participants were well aware of ticks and tick-borne diseases and every day from May until September inspected their skin and filled in a diary sheet, registering e.g. visited geographical places, time out-of-doors and observed tick-bites. In addition, questionnaires were filled in when entering and at the end of the study. They included questions, e.g. about earlier history of tick-bites or previous undergone tick-borne diseases and out-of-door activities during the studied period. Of the participants, 197/235 (84%) were bitten during the observation period of whom 47/235 (20%) were bitten at = 10 occasions. The incidence was 0.04 (95% CI 0.02-0.06) tick-bitten participants per 10 hours spent out-of-doors. Totally, the participants registered 1767 tick-bites, i.e. an incidence of 0.14 (95% CI 0.10-0.18) tick-bites per 10 hours spent out-of-doors. There were no significant differences of the distribution of tick-bitten participants between children and adults (p=0.19), nor when taking in consider gender (p=0.09). Within six months after the registration period, 8/235 (3%) had been treated for a physician diagnosed Lyme borreliosis (LB). To conclude, we found a risk of 4% to be tick-bitten per 10 hours spent out-of-doors in this region. Although the participants consciousness we found a population at high risk to be tick-bitten. The risk to acquire LB was 1/221 tick-bites. If the participants not have performed such a meticulously daily tick inspection the risk of developing LB would probably increased. However, our study further strengthens the opinion to not recommend routinely prophylactic treatment for observed tick-bites.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
New York, USA, 2002.
Keywords [en]
tick-bites, Lyme borreliosis, incidence, out-of-doors, prophylactic
National Category
Public Health, Global Health, Social Medicine and Epidemiology
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:bth-9237Local ID: oai:bth.se:forskinfo1019A9BABFFE48E7C1257307004F0581OAI: oai:DiVA.org:bth-9237DiVA, id: diva2:837015
Conference
IX International conference on Lyme borreliosis and other tick-borne diseases
Available from: 2012-09-18 Created: 2007-06-27 Last updated: 2015-06-30Bibliographically approved

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Stjernberg, Louise

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CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

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Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
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Language
  • de-DE
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Output format
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