RIVM and Wageningen University researchers expect the tick bite season to reach its peak in the next few weeks. The peak will coincide with the start of the summer holidays.

Ticks are active again, as shown by the increase in tick bite reports on Tekenradar.nl. Quick action is important: the faster you remove a tick after it bites you, the lower your risk of contracting Lyme disease.

Each year, approximately 27,000 people are diagnosed with Lyme disease. For most, the symptoms disappear after treatment with antibiotics. Unfortunately, 25% of those treated have chronic symptoms, such as fatigue, concentration disorders or pain.

In 2021, the number of Lyme disease diagnoses with a red ring or rash– known as an erythema migrans, or EM – remained as high as in the previous survey in 2017. GPs diagnosed 25,600 patients with a red ring or rash caused by the Lyme bacteria.

In 2022, the reported number of tick bites in the Netherlands fell by a third compared to previous years. In order to find a satisfactory explanation for such differences, researchers at WUR and RIVM have initiated a large-scale study via Tekenradar.nl. This will give them more insights into the 1.5 million tick bites in the Netherlands every year.

More than 18 thousand people in the Netherlands have received one or more mpox vaccinations. The vaccination campaign was launched late last July, shortly after the outbreak began, and ended last month.

10,440 monkeypox vaccinations have already been administered in the Netherlands in the last few weeks. That represents about one-third of the target group currently eligible to get the vaccine against monkeypox.

More than 16,000 cases of monkeypox have now been confirmed worldwide, spread across 75 countries. Both the number of confirmed cases and the number of countries where the disease is present are continuing to rise