Every year about 1.5 million ticks bite someone in the Netherlands, especially between March and October. Most people will not get sick of that.

In 2019, the number of people with tuberculosis (TB) in the Netherlands decreased to 759. This is 5 per cent less than in 2018, when 797 were reported.

In 2018, 22.4 per cent of the Dutch adult population indicated they were occasional smokers.

The key figures of the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) show that in 2018 there were 806 TB patients in the Netherlands. This is 3 percent more than in 2017 (784).

The number of tuberculosis (TB) patients in the Netherlands decreased considerably in 2017. From 887 patients in 2016 to 787 in 2017.

Active Lyme disease of the central nervous system cannot be detected with an ELISpot test.

The societal costs of Lyme disease have been determined for the Netherlands for the first time. The disease appears to cost nearly EUR 20 million each year.

Researcher Dr Guus Velders of RIVM has made the Nature top-10 list of 2016. This means that, according to Nature, he was one of the 10 most influential scientists in 2016.

Scientific research by RIVM’s Guus Velders stood partly at the basis of the HFC global climate agreement.

Lyme disease can cause a variety of complaints in patients. Laboratory tests for the disease can support medical practitioners in making a diagnosis but are not necessarily conclusive.