Hypersensitivity to Ticks and Lyme Disease Risk

摘要: Although residents of Lyme disease–endemic regions describe frequent exposure to ticks, disease develops in relatively few. To determine whether people who experience cutaneous hypersensitivity against tick bite have fewer episodes than those do not, we examined several factors that might restrict the incidence among Block Island, Rhode Island. Of 1,498 study participants, 27% (95% confidence interval [CI] 23%–31%) reported >1 bites, and 17% CI 13%–21%) itch associated with previous year. Borrelia burgdorferi infected 23% 20%–26%) 135 nymphal Ixodes scapularis (I. dammini) ticks. The likelihood infection decreased >3 reports tick-associated (odds ratio 0.14, 95% 0.94–0.03, p = 0.01). Prior uninfected vector ticks protects disease-endemic sites from disease.