The first cases of Lyme disease (LD) were recognized in Lyme, Connecticut in 1975. Although many assume that the condition is largely limited to the United States, LD has been reported in 63 countries as of 2010, with cases in Latin America, Asia, Europe and North Africa. Surprisingly, the world’s highest LD rates are reported in Slovenia, followed by the Baltic countries and Czech Republic (see graph). [1,2]

Borrelia burgdorferi was first isolated from patients in Slovenia in 1988, and from ticks in 1993.

Prevalence surveys:
7.7% to 46% of febrile illness following tick bite
45.5% of ticks in the Italy/Slovenia transborder territory (2008 publication)

Seroprevalence surveys:
15.4% of children and young adults in Slovenia (2000 publication)
23.8% of forestry workers (ELISA, 2002)

Infecting species:
– Borrelia burgdorferi, B. afzelii and B. garinii are encountered.
– B. afzelii accounts for the majority of isolates; however, B. garinii predominates among strains cultured from cerebrospinal fluid.
– B. bissettii has been isolated from humans with Lyme disease in Slovenia.
– Borrelia spielmanii (Borrelia A14S) has been implicated in cases of erythema chronicum migrans in Slovenia.

References:
1. Berger SA. Infectious Diseases of Slovenia, 2010, 373 pp. Gideon e-book series. http://www.gideononline.com/ebooks/country/infectious-diseases-of-slovenia/
2. Berger SA. Lyme disease: Global Status, 2010, 66 pp. Gideon e-book series. http://www.gideononline.com/ebooks/disease/lyme-disease-global-status/

A case imported from India into the United States is the latest in a growing list of cross-border measles episodes. The following is a chronology of notable outbreaks reported during the past decade.

1998 – An outbreak (69 cases, 2 hospitalized, 0 fatal) in Tuvalu was ascribed to introduced cases among workers from Nauru.
1998 – An outbreak (33 cases) was linked to an infected visitor arriving to Alaska, United States from Japan.
1999 – An outbreak (75 confirmed cases) in Australia was traced to an index case from Indonesia.
2000 – Outbreaks (78 cases, total) in Canada were linked to travel in Mexico (6 cases), Bolivia (19 cases) and Belgium (25 cases).
2000 – An outbreak (992 cases, or 57% of all cases for the Americas region) in Haiti was thought to originated with imported cases from the Dominican Republic.
2000 to 2001 – An outbreak (1,062 cases, 0 fatal) was reported in Tanzania among refugees from Burundi.
(more…)

Rates of tick-borne infections in the United States have been increasing dramatically since 2000. See attached graph (Lyme disease displayed as cases/100,000 to allow fit). Although this phenomenon might reflect changes in human population density and artifacts of reporting and diagnosis, I suspect that these data are related to increasing tick and animal reservoir populations.

Update: Also referenced in ProMED

Another Promed post by Steve:

The relative importance of Eastern Equine Encephalitis [EEE] in the United States has been overshadowed by the emergence of neuroinvasive West Nile fever (WNF) virus infection. The graphs referenced below illustrate the relative incidence of older forms of arboviral encephalitis: Graph of encephalitis cases in the US
and the dominance of WNF since 2003: Graph of encephalitis cases versus West Nile fever in the US.