The incidence of Lyme disease in Belarus has increased 1.4 times

August 13, MINSK . The incidence of Lyme disease in Belarus increased 1.4 times, and tick-borne encephalitis remained at the level of the same period last year. This information is posted on the website of the Republican Center for Hygiene, Epidemiology and Public HEALTH, BELTA reports.

According to the sanitary-epidemiological service, the epidemic season for tick-borne infections continues. As of August 1, there were about 100 cases of tick-borne encephalitis and more than 950 cases of Lyme disease.

The disease with tick-borne encephalitis has been registered in 31 administrative-territorial units of the republic; these are isolated cases. There were two outbreaks in the Smorgon and Volozhin districts (two cases each), where the infection occurred as a result of consuming goat MILK. In several districts of the Brest (4) and Grodno (3) regions, which include the Belovezhskaya Pushcha National Park, the number of cases of tick-borne encephalitis is traditionally higher than the national average incidence rate.

The geographic distribution of Lyme disease cases is wider. During January - July, residents of 79 administrative-territorial units of the republic were infected.

About 18 thousand people, including more than 5.5 thousand children, turned to doctors because of a tick bite in seven months. This is 6% lower than for the same period in 2022. The most requests were among residents of the capital and the Grodno region, and the smallest number were in the Minsk and Gomel regions. More often, tick bites occurred in summer cottages and in rural areas (40.6%), as well as when visiting forests (34.4%), less often in urban residential areas (11.5%).

According to the results of entomological monitoring, the numbers of ticks in natural biotopes (forest zone) of the Brest, Gomel and Vitebsk regions are higher than the national average.