National Health Fund: In 2024, almost 100,000 patients with tick-borne diseases visited doctors

In 2024, nearly 100,000 patients with tick-borne diseases visited primary care physicians, according to data from the National Health Fund. Among them, 62,000 had Lyme disease, which, if left untreated, leads to neurological and cardiac complications.

National Health Fund (NFZ) data show that in 2024, primary care physicians provided care to over 98,000 patients with tick-borne diseases. Among them, 62,000 had Lyme disease, a disease that, if left untreated, leads to neurological and cardiac complications. This represents approximately 63% of all tick-borne disease cases.

The first ticks become active as early as late February and early March. However, the highest number of cases occurs during the summer holidays. "Last year, from June to August, nearly 43,000 people visited their primary care physicians with tick-borne illnesses. In 2024, 725 patients required hospitalization due to tick-borne viral encephalitis," said Paweł Florek, director of the Social Communication and Promotion Office at the National Health Fund Headquarters.

A tick bite is painless, but it may carry a risk of infection with tick-borne diseases. The highest risk of infection occurs 36 hours after the parasite bite.

Lyme disease, or Lyme borreliosis, is a bacterial disease. A small percentage of ticks carry the disease, and not every contact with an infected tick causes illness, but if Lyme disease develops, it can lead to serious complications.

The disease can progress over months or even years. If left untreated, it can lead to numerous neurological complications, heart disorders, and joint disease. Hospitalization and rehabilitation may be necessary.

Symptoms of infection can appear one to six weeks after the bite. These include erythema migrans – an oval-shaped lesion that enlarges over time (usually annular, but may occasionally have a different appearance or be absent altogether), fever, fatigue, headaches, and a feeling of malaise. "Spontaneous disappearance of erythema migrans does not mean recovery," the National Health Fund emphasized in a press release.

The Fund also reminded that examining a removed tick does not provide information about human infection. "Examining a tick only allows us to determine whether it is a carrier of the Borrelia spirochete. A positive result does not confirm the transmission of the spirochete to the human body. Therefore, it is impossible to confirm infection based on examining the tick," it noted.

"Such a test, according to regulations, cannot be considered a diagnostic test. Moreover, it is also not recommended by scientific bodies and infectious disease specialists," explained Monika Pintal-Ślimak, president of the National Council of Laboratory Diagnosticians. (PAP)

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