A new study published in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) journal,
Emerging Infectious Diseases, estimates an average of ≈476,000 patients received a diagnosis of Lyme disease each year (95% credible interval 405,000–547,000) during 2010–2018, this is up from ≈329,000 persons annually in the United States for the years 2005–2010.
Image/CDC
The data is taken from insurance claims from IBM Watson Health MarketScan Commercial Claims and Encounters Databases for inpatient, outpatient, and prescription services covering 25 million privately insured US residents 65 years of age.
“Our estimate addresses the last of these; it reflects the overall societal and clinical burden of Lyme disease”, the researchers say.
Study finds high antibiotic use in Indian hospitals
A point-prevalence study conducted in five hospitals in India shows high use of antibiotics in admitted patients, with a considerable proportion coming from a category of broad-spectrum drugs with a higher potential for promoting antibiotic resistance, Indian researchers reported in the
Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy.
The survey, conducted over 2 weeks in May 2019 at five tertiary care centers in India, aimed to collect data on antibiotic prescribing patterns and practices in the country s hospitals, which are in the nascent stages of developing antimicrobial stewardship programs. The researchers collected data on all admitted patients in wards and intensive care units over the study period to determine indications for antibiotic use and the percentage of patients on antibiotics, receiving more than one antibiotic, and on antibiotics from the Watch and Reserve categories of the World Health Organization s Essential Medici
Abstract
By using commercial insurance claims data, we estimated that Lyme disease was diagnosed and treated in ≈476,000 patients in the United States annually during 2010–2018. Our results underscore the need for accurate diagnosis and improved prevention.
Lyme disease is caused by
Borrelia burgdorferi spirochetes, which are transmitted to humans by certain
Ixodes spp. ticks (
1). The infection can involve multiple organ systems and is treatable with antimicrobial drugs; most persons recover fully, especially those who receive early and appropriate treatment (
1). The geographic distribution of Lyme disease in the United States and the demographic characteristics of persons affected have been well documented through nearly 3 decades of public health surveillance (
Abstract
We evaluated MarketScan, a large commercial insurance claims database, for its potential use as a stable and consistent source of information on Lyme disease diagnoses in the United States. The age, sex, and geographic composition of the enrolled population during 2010–2018 remained proportionally stable, despite fluctuations in the number of enrollees. Annual incidence of Lyme disease diagnoses per 100,000 enrollees ranged from 49 to 88, ≈6–8 times higher than that observed for cases reported through notifiable disease surveillance. Age and sex distributions among Lyme disease diagnoses in MarketScan were similar to those of cases reported through surveillance, but proportionally more diagnoses occurred outside of peak summer months, among female enrollees, and outside high-incidence states. Misdiagnoses, particularly in low-incidence states, may account for some of the observed epidemiologic differences. Commercial claims provide a stable data source to monitor tren