Clinical and Epidemiological Studies of Ixodiasis and Infectious Diseases Sequental to Ixodes Tick Bites in Rural Areas: Report II / 日本農村医学会雑誌

This is the second report of the findings of the clinical and epidemiological studies on pathogen-carrying madani tick bites (ixodiasis) and the vector-borne diseases conducted by a study group of researchers specially organized by the Japanese Association of Rural Medicine. The report covers the period from January 1 through December 31, 2004.The same questionnaires that had been prepared in the previous survey were sentto 80 JARM-affiliated medical facilities and 11 non-member medical institutions to collect information about tick bites and resultant infections.It was found that during 2004 there were 134 cases (67 for men and 67 for women) of skin lesions caused by ixodid tick bites, 14 cases of Lyme disease (7 for men and the same for women), and none for Japanese spotted fever. These ixodiasis cases did not show any speciffic difference from those reported previously. All the Lyme disease patients developed erythema migrans which characterize stage 1 infection.As there is still plenty of catching up to do in terms of coping with the tick bite problems in Japan, we referred to some literature on the control of ixodid ticks, serologic testing techniques for Lyme disease, administration of prophylactic antibiotics and therapeutic methods.

Clinical and Epidemiological Studies of Ixodiasis and Infectious Diseases Sequential to \it{Ixodes} Tick Bites in Rural Areas : Report I / 日本農村医学会雑誌

This paper describes the results of clinical and epidemiological studies of pathogen-carrying madani tick bites and the vector-borne diseases. The studies were conducted by a group of researchers specially organized by the Japanese Association of Rural Medicine.Questionnaires were sent out to JARM-affiliated 108 medical institutions to collect information about cases of ixodiasis, Lyme disease and Japanese spotted fever. It was found that during 2002, there were 151 cases of Ixodes tick bites (67 males and 84 females) and 17 cases of Lyme disease (13 males and 4 females). The incidence of Japanese spotted fever was zero.The survey also found that before that year, 24 out of the 108 medical institutions had treated tick bite cases and 13 handn’t. No reply came from the rest. As to Lyme disease, six hospitals had experienced in treating this vector-borne disease, 31 hadn’t and the rest did not reply. Japanese spotted fever was confirmed by one hospital. Thirty-three hospitals said they had not encountered this disease. The remaining 74 facilities did not respond. It was regrettable that more than a half of the 108 institutions did not respond to the survey. Considering that new types of infectious diseases caused by new forms of pathogens are raging nowadays, we, professionals affiliated with the Japanese Association of Rural Medicine, must keep careful watch on these diseases.