Number of tick-borne disease cases in Norway soared in first half of 2020

While there is a decrease in the number of cases of most infectious diseases due to coronavirus infection control measures, tick-borne diseases have increased by 37% between January and July of 2020.

“So far this year, 142 cases have been reported, compared with 104 cases in 2019. That is an increase of 37%, and this is probably due to the fact that people have been more out in the woods and fields and thus more exposed to ticks,” senior adviser Solveig Jore at Norwegian Institute of Public Health (FHI) noted in mid-July.

The increase includes cases of Lyme disease.

Minor infectious diseases

Otherwise, the number of cases of other infectious diseases has been lower than in 2019 in April, May, and June, after the shutdown in March.

The trend continued in the second half of June, when 577 cases of infectious diseases, which are not COVID-19, were reported to the Norwegian Surveillance System for Communicable Diseases (MSIS).

That is a decrease of 33% from the corresponding period in 2019.

No decrease has been registered only for diseases caused by resistant bacteria.

Effect of corona measures

“We reckon that this is largely due to the fact people stay at home due to the COVID-19 measures to a greater extent when they are ill.

“They also have good hand hygiene and keep distance from other people,” Pawel Stefanoff, a doctor at the Department of Infection Control at the National Institute of Public Health, noted at the time.

“At the same time, there has been an increase in the number of registered cases of illness from the first half of June, after people started to travel and move more,” he added.