What are the odds of getting Lyme disease after a tick bite?

What are the odds of getting Lyme disease after a tick bite?

In the Netherlands, ticks are often infected with a virus that they transmit to humans through a bite. After a tick bite, there is a chance of contracting Lyme disease, and it can even have fatal consequences. A tick bite is therefore dangerous, but a bite from an infected tick does not always lead to Lyme disease.

Borrelia bacteria

Lyme disease is caused by the Borrelia bacteria, with which 22 percent of ticks in the Netherlands are infected. Ticks can transmit this virus through biting, but the research data shows that not everyone gets Lyme disease after a tick bite. Otherwise, the chance of getting Lyme disease would not be 2.7 percent, but much higher.

 

Lyme disease in the Netherlands

Annually, about 22,000 people in the Netherlands become infected with Lyme disease. For 80 percent of them, the disease is limited to a red, circular rash at the bite site (erythema migrans), the hallmark of Lyme disease. For the remaining 20 percent, serious symptoms can develop, which in most cases arise within three months after the tick bite. These can include serious complaints in the nervous system, heart, or joints. Lyme disease itself is not immediately fatal, but it can have deadly consequences if the disease is only noticed in a later stage. Particularly, heart rhythm disturbances can have fatal consequences.