ABSTRACT
Lyme borreliosis has become a serious diagnostic and therapeutic problem of modern medicine. The occurrence of the disease in Europe, and also in Poland, has recently increased. Diagnostic problems with Borrelia burgdorferi infection result from non-characteristic course of the disease in children, without the 1 st stage of the disease (erythema migrans), negative history forwards tick bite, lack of seasonal changes in occurrence and difficulties with interpretation of serological tests results. Direct laboratory investigations are also of little relevance.
Subject(s)
Borrelia burgdorferi/isolation & purification , Lyme Disease/diagnosis , Diagnosis, Differential , Humans , Lyme Disease/epidemiology , Lyme Disease/microbiology , Poland/epidemiologyABSTRACT
Clinical picture of Borrelia burgdorferi infection has been presented in 45 children, aged 2-16 years from Lódz region. The analysis showed significant domination of cases with affected central and peripheral nervous system (44.4%) and rather unspecific symptoms such as: fever (20%) or headache (13.3%). Peripheral cranial nerves paralysis and symptoms of cerebrospinal meningitis dominated among children with neuroborreliosis. Unlike descriptions concerning adults, majority of the observed symptoms were changes characteristic for I and II stage of the disease. Dermatosis was found only in 1 child and symptoms of arthritis in 2 of them. Contact with tick was stated in 52% of the analysed children. Incidence of the disease occurred throughout the whole year, more frequently in summer and autumn months.