Seroprevalence of Lyme borreliosis in Finland 50 years ago.

OBJECTIVES: Lyme borreliosis (LB) is a tick-borne infection common in Europe. In Finland, the LB seroprevalence in the healthy population was 3.9% in 2011. While the present-day seroprevalence of LB is well characterized in several European areas, there are no studies on the seroprevalence of LB before the description of the infection in the late 1970s. METHODS: We used a subset of historical serum samples (n = 994) collected during the Finnish Mobile Clinic Health Survey, a nationwide cross-sectional health survey of the 1960s and 1970s. All samples were screened with Borrelia burgdorferi whole-cell sonicate IgG ELISA. The seropositivity of the samples was further confirmed by the C6 peptide ELISA and recomBead IgG 2.0 bead immunoassay. The association of LB seropositivity with risk factors and with self-reported diseases and symptoms relating to disseminated LB were analysed by logistic regression. RESULTS: B. burgdorferi IgGs were detected in 199 of 994 analysed samples; hence, the overall seroprevalence was 20.0% (95% confidence interval: 17.6-22.6). The highest seroprevalence was observed in persons aged ≥50 years (165/696), in those currently not working (92/383), and in the regions of South and Central Finland (91/226 and 27/88, respectively). Further, perception of feeling unhealthy (129/197 versus 412/794) was higher among LB-seropositive individuals compared to LB-seronegative participants. CONCLUSION: LB seroprevalence was considerably higher in Finland in the late 1960s and early 1970s than in 2011. This result questions the perception of an unprecedentedly high LB seroprevalence in present-day Europe.

Discovery of the Lyme Disease Agent.

A detailed first-hand account of the events leading up to the discovery of the Lyme disease agent has been lacking. Nearly 40 years have elapsed since the discovery of the organism that was named Borrelia burgdorferi There are thousands of articles in the scientific and medical literature on this organism and the disease that it causes. In the interval since the organism's discovery, however, misconceptions have arisen regarding not only the disease but the discovery itself. Accordingly, with this paper, we aim to fill in the details of this episode in medical history with a joint introduction, first-person accounts by the two authors, a summary of contemporaneous events, and concluding comments. The history of the discovery of the Lyme disease agent has threads originating in different places in the United States. Studies on Long Island, NY, provided the epidemiological thread of studies on rickettsial diseases and babesiosis, linking the latter with the cutaneous manifestation of Lyme disease, now known as erythema migrans. The Long Island thread intersected Montana's Rocky Mountain Laboratories thread of studies on a relapsing fever Borrelia and its cultivation and expertise in vector biology. This intersection made possible the discovery of the spirochete and its recovery from patients. This paper stresses that what may seem to have been an individual scientific discovery is actually the product of several threads coming together and is attributable to more people than appreciated.

[History of the study, epidemiology of the disease and characterization of Borrelia burgdorferi infection]. / Historia badan, epidemiologia zachorowan oraz charakterystyka zakazenia Borrelia burgdorferi.

From the beginning of the twentieth century interest in tick-borne borreliosis continues to be an important diagnostic and therapeutic problem. In 1977, in Lyme and Old Lyme, Cunnecticut, in the United States, arthritis and skin lesions were described in 12 children, which were associated with tick bites. The name of the place was called a syndrome of Lyme disease. Dr Willy Burgdorfer observed microaerophilic Gram-negative bacteria (Spirochetes) with a diameter of 0.3-0.5 µm and a length of about 20-30 µm, which were isolated from the tick colon. Lyme disease (borreliosis) is the most common tick-borne disease in the world. In Poland, most cases of Lyme disease occur between May and November, and more than 80% of cases are found in June and July during the nymph ticks feeding. The northern part of the country is considered endemic. The reservoir of bacteria is about 300 different species of mammals. These are mainly rodents of the norovirus and mouse family, and live deer, deer and wolves, as well as some species of birds. Ticks are infected with Borelia burgdorferi through the blood of infected animals. However, adult ticks are infested with Lyme spirochetes, depending on the region of the country. It infects 5-20% nymph and 15-40% adult individuals. The sequence of the Lyme disease spirochetes reveals a number of interesting traits. Classical virulence factors have not been isolated and therefore it is suspected that the vertebrate does not contain it in relation to mammals. However, a number of lipoproteins have been defined and some of them may be factors contributing to the innate immune system.

Lyme Borreliosis in Finland, 1995-2014.

We investigated the epidemiology of Lyme borreliosis (LB) in Finland for the period 1995-2014 by using data from 3 different healthcare registers. We reviewed data on disseminated LB cases from the National Infectious Diseases Register (21,051 cases) and the National Hospital Discharge Register (10,402 cases) and data on primary LB (erythema migrans) cases from the Register for Primary Health Care Visits (11,793 cases). Incidence of microbiologically confirmed disseminated LB cases increased from 7/100,000 population in 1995 to 31/100,000 in 2014. Incidence of primary LB cases increased from 44/100,000 in 2011 to 61/100,000 in 2014. Overall, cases occurred predominantly in women, and we observed a bimodal age distribution in all 3 registers. Our results clearly demonstrate that the geographic distribution of LB has expanded in Finland and underscore the importance of LB as an increasing public health concern in Finland and in northern Europe in general.

Lyme Disease in Hispanics, United States, 2000-2013.

Hispanics comprise a growing portion of the US population and might have distinct risk factors for tickborne diseases. During 2000-2013, a total of 5,473 Lyme disease cases were reported among Hispanics through national surveillance. Hispanics were more likely than non-Hispanics to have signs of disseminated infection and onset during fall months.

New insights into the Tyrolean Iceman's origin and phenotype as inferred by whole-genome sequencing.

The Tyrolean Iceman, a 5,300-year-old Copper age individual, was discovered in 1991 on the Tisenjoch Pass in the Italian part of the Ötztal Alps. Here we report the complete genome sequence of the Iceman and show 100% concordance between the previously reported mitochondrial genome sequence and the consensus sequence generated from our genomic data. We present indications for recent common ancestry between the Iceman and present-day inhabitants of the Tyrrhenian Sea, that the Iceman probably had brown eyes, belonged to blood group O and was lactose intolerant. His genetic predisposition shows an increased risk for coronary heart disease and may have contributed to the development of previously reported vascular calcifications. Sequences corresponding to ~60% of the genome of Borrelia burgdorferi are indicative of the earliest human case of infection with the pathogen for Lyme borreliosis.

Close to home: a history of Yale and Lyme disease.

Yale scientists played a pivotal role in the discovery of Lyme disease and are credited as the first to recognize, name, characterize, and treat the affliction. Today, Lyme disease is the most commonly reported vector-borne illness in the United States, affecting approximately 20,000 people each year, with the incidence having doubled in the past 10 years [1]. Lyme disease is the result of a bacterial infection transmitted to humans through the bite of an infected deer tick, which typically results in a skin rash at the site of attack. While most cases, when caught early, are easily treated by antibiotic therapy, delayed treatment can lead to serious systemic side effects involving the joints, heart, and central nervous system. Here we review Yale's role in the discovery and initial characterization of Lyme disease and how those early discoveries are crucial to our current understanding of the disease.

Lyme disease: European perspective.

The main clinical features of Lyme borreliosis seem to be the same in Europe and North America; however, the course of erythema migrans is distinct, with multiple erythema migrans and hematogeneous dissemination in early Lyme borreliosis less frequently observed in Europe. Moreover, the skin manifestations borrelial lymphocytoma and acrodermatitis chronica atrophicans are apparently European phenomena. Meningoradiculoneuritis in Lyme neuroborreliosis, with its severe radicular pain, is more prominent in Europe. Similar difficulties exist on both sides of the Atlantic with the serologic diagnosis of Lyme borreliosis.

Enfermedad de Lyme en la infancia. ¿Enfermedad importada? / Lyme disease in childhood: an imported disease?

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Lyme borreliosis in 2005, 30 years after initial observations in Lyme Connecticut.

Nearly 100 years ago, Afzelius described a patient with an expanding skin lesion, called erythema migrans, which is now known to be the initial skin manifestation of Lyme borreliosis. Approximately 70 years later, in 1976, epidemiologic evaluation of a cluster of children with arthritis in Lyme, Connecticut led to a complete description of the infection. During the subsequent years, investigators in a number of countries have made remarkable strides in the elucidation of this tick-borne spirochetal infection. The purpose of this review is to discuss the current status of Lyme borreliosis, including areas in which knowledge of the infection is still incomplete.