Ticks, the small blood-sucking arachnids that carry infections like Lyme disease and tick-borne encephalitis, have weathered the past winter very successfully and are now especially active in Latvia, Baiba Rozentale, chief physicians at the Latvian Infectious Diseases Center of the Riga East Hospital (RAKUS), told LETA.
As at June 30, medics had removed 613 ticks from patients, with 321 of these removed at the Infectious Diseases Center. None of the 74 ticks examined in laboratory tested positive for the tick-borne encephalitis virus.
In contrast, borrelia bacteria, which cause Lyme disease, were found significantly more frequently in the ticks removed from people. Of the 73 ticks tested for the borrelia, 27 proved positive, an infection rate of around 37 percent.
Rosentale noted, however, that not everyone who becomes infected develops clinically severe forms. In total, 12 patients have been treated for the Lyme disease at the hospital this year.
Source: BNS
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