Sammendrag
Background: Lyme-borreliosis is an endemic disease in coastal areas in southern Norway. Disseminated Lyme-borreliosis is reported to the Norwegian institute of public health, whereas local manifestations of Lyme-borreliosis are not reported.
Study design: We developed a computer program for searching GPs' patient records. All list holding GPs in the southern Norwegian counties Vestfold, Telemark, Aust-Agder and Vest-Agder were invited (n = 567). 231 GPs participated in the study. This paper addresses the preliminary results from the first 143 general practitioners who replied. Their patient records from the period January 1. 2005 to December 31. 2009 were searched for 16 different tick related terms. The result was read and coded by five variables, namely 1) known tick bite, 2) rash concistant with erythema migrans, 3) whether the patient had been at the out of hour service for the same event, 4) were serological samples taken 5) was the patient admitted to hospital or specialist treatment.
Results: We found that the incidence of erythema migrans (EM) in general practice in southern Norway is 4,19/1000 patients/year. The patients with EM (n=3606) were mainly treated with phenoxymethylpenicillin (51,0%, n=1838), doxycyclin (26,4%, n =952) and amoxicillin (1,6%, n=57). The results have not been statistically tested. There are several variables in the material which are yet to be analyzed, including geographical data.