More than a quarter of people with Lyme disease continue to have long-term symptoms that lead to limitations in daily life even after treatment.

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.

RIVM has investigated the so-called giant tick that was found in Odoorn in the province of Drenthe on 13 July. It is a Hyalomma marginatum female. 

How can the process of validation, acceptance and use of animal-free innovative approaches to assess the safety of chemicals be facilitated?

According to a survey by RIVM , 27,000 people were infected with Lyme disease in 2017. In 2014, the last time RIVM reported on the incidence of tick-borne disease, this number was 25,000.

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.

One in 5 tick bites occurs in an urban area. Although most tick bites occur in the countryside, many people are bitten in urban areas as well.

As of 1 January 2017, the disorders alpha and beta thalassaemia will be added to the neonatal blood spot (‘heel prick’) screening programme.

For the first time, a person in the Netherlands has fallen ill after a bite from a tick carrying the tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBE virus).