DETECTION OF BORRELIA SPIROCHETES IN TICKS WITH q16 REAL-TIME PCR

Lyme disease is a tick-borne disease caused by Borrelia burgdorferi s.l. spirochaetes. It is transmitted by several hard ticks of the genus Ixodes, mainly Ixodes ricinus in Europe. Higher environment temperature caused by climate changes is linked to a higher activity of ticks during most of the year, thus the importance of tick-borne diseases is increasing in the region. A total of 90 ticks were collected by removing from humans. Every tick collected was identified regarding the species. Total of 79 ticks belonging to the genus Ixodes were tested for the presence of the pathogen strains of Borrelia burgdorferi s.l, Borrelia afzelii, Borrelia garinii and Borrelia burgdoreri sensu stricto by a real-time PCR assay targeting the recA gene. In total, 8 of them tested positive. Representative samples were tested with conventional PCR and results were in accordance. This study showed that the Genesig q16 Real-Time PCR is an easy diagnostic test for fast detection of Borrelia spirochetes in ticks. Key words: Lyme disease, tick-borne disease, real-time PCR, Borrelia

Practical aspects of Lyme disease in children

Lyme disease is especially important in the spring–autumn period, despite the fact that its clinical manifestations may be throughout the year. Awareness of general practitioners with this problem is insufficient, it requires additional knowledge about diagnosis and treatment. In pediatric practice, the fact of a child being bitten by an Ixodes mite that carries the causative agent of Lyme borreliosis, in addition to babesiosis, anaplasmosis, often goes unnoticed. Therefore, parents seek medical help only when various problems arise, often the thought of Lyme disease does not even arise. Lyme disease has a wide polymorphism of clinical symptoms, is characterized by multisystem lesions, cyclical course — all this complicates the diagnostic search. The difficulty also lies in the fact that there are no domestic clinical recommendations. This publication presents approaches to the diagnosis, treatment, prevention of Lyme disease based on the experience of experts from different countries. Modern approaches to two-stage laboratory diagnostics, tactics of patient management from the moment of bite, treatment at different stages of Lyme borreliosis are analyzed. Attention is paid to the need for epidemiological research in Ukraine and the beginning of educational programs to prevent the disease. The differentiated approach to the treatment of Lyme disease in children due to age aspects, concomitant pathology, safety of long_term antibacterial therapy should be studied more. No conflict of interest was declared by the authors. Key words: Lyme disease, children, diagnosis, treatment, prevention.