Borrelia cases remain stable in Finland, THL says

Finland’s Institute for Health and Welfare says the country’s borrelia situation remains stable, with about 1,000 laboratory-confirmed cases recorded so far this year, Yle reports. An estimated 10,000 to 15,000 people in Finland contract borrelia annually, and about half develop symptoms.

The number of cases reported to THL’s infectious diseases register was about 1,000 by the end of July. During the same period last year, 1,100 cases had been registered.

Infectious diseases physician Mikaela Mutru told the Finnish News Agency STT that the situation is in line with recent years. The register usually receives between 2,000 and 3,000 borrelia notifications annually. Although the figure has increased since the beginning of the millennium, it has not changed significantly over the past five to 10 years, despite considerable annual variation.

Healthcare care registers, which record visits and diagnoses, show that about 6,000 people received a borrelia diagnosis this year in public primary care, private healthcare or occupational healthcare.

This figure probably also includes laboratory-confirmed cases recorded in the infectious diseases register. However, doctors can diagnose the most common symptom of borrelia, a spreading red rash, without laboratory tests.

Changes in the coverage of healthcare providers in the registers in recent years make it difficult to determine whether the number of borrelia cases is increasing.

Checking for ticks can help prevent infection

Until a vaccine becomes available, people can help protect themselves by removing ticks carefully. The skin should be checked thoroughly after spending time outdoors, as young ticks can be only one millimetre in size and still transmit the disease.

Infection generally requires the tick to remain attached to the skin for 12 to 24 hours. Mutru recommends checking the skin, for example, in the evening.

Borrelia can also be transmitted by a horsefly, but the insect would first have to carry the bacteria in its mouthparts. Even ticks carrying Borrelia transmit the bacteria relatively inefficiently, and infection may not occur or become severe.

Most people bitten by a tick do not develop borrelia. A doctor-diagnosed infection is treated with a course of antibiotics to prevent late symptoms from developing.