[Lyme disease: clinical and sero-epidemiological study of Borrelia burgdorferi infections in Belgium]

Abstract

Lyme disease is a multi-systemic infection caused by the spirochaete Borrelia burgdorferi: this bacterium, discovered in 1982 in the United States, is mainly transmitted by a tick bite, Ixodes ricinus in Europe. In Belgium, a first seroepidemiological study of 3 years has revealed 190 patients and the whole spectrum of clinical pictures was observed, including the early stage of this infection in the skin (erythema chronicum migrans), neurological involvement and arthritis. The Lyme borreliosis is endemic in our country: the incidence ranges from low near the coast to high in the south-eastern part of Belgium.