ABSTRACT
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.
