What question did this study set out to answer?

The research aims to estimate the economic burden of Lyme disease and post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome in Ireland while creating a patient care roadmap.

June 14, 2026Open Access

Patient roadmap and economic burden of chronic tick-borne illness and post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome in Ireland, and public health issues arising

GAGordana AvramovicUniversity College Dublin LGLeona GilbertInstituto Superior Politecnico de Tete SKSławomir KujawskiNicolaus Copernicus University

Key Points

The research aims to estimate the economic burden of Lyme disease and post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome in Ireland while creating a patient care roadmap.
Administered a patient questionnaire collecting sociodemographic and healthcare utilization data from 301 patients diagnosed with Lyme disease and/or tick-borne infections.
Conducted disease modelling and patient roadmap construction to analyze care pathways and healthcare resource use.
Employed indirect reverse estimation to calculate lifetime risk of post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome.
Of 301 patients, 210 were diagnosed with Lyme disease or a tick-borne infection, with an average age of 40.07 years.
The average duration of symptoms in post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome patients was 7.15 years, leading to high healthcare utilization with an average of 16.8 visits per patient.
Around 69% of respondents reported that symptoms affected their employment status, indicating significant socio-economic impact.

Abstract

Lyme borreliosis (LB), commonly referred to as Lyme disease (LD), is a prominent global health issue, exhibiting a seroprevalence rate of 14.5%. Heightened incidence levels of LD have been recorded in parts of Europe, Poland, Eastern Europe, and the Baltic States. The research aimed to inform the cost of LD and post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome (PTLDS) in Ireland through results from a patient questionnaire, disease modelling, the construction of a patient roadmap, and attempts to arrive at prevalence calculation estimates based on local data. Patient data encompassed sociodemographic particulars, disease attributes, healthcare resource utilization, and the influence on their employment status. Of 301 patients, 210 were diagnosed with LD and/or a tick-borne infection (TBI), the cohort’s average age was 40.07 (SD 13.5) ( N = 210; Female:Male 60:40). The mean duration of symptoms in PTLDS patients was 7.15 years. The average number of visits to other healthcare professionals was 16.8 per patient. Regarding current employment status, the data indicates that 50.2% of respondents were currently working, 10.1% were unemployed, 8.7% were retired, 5.3% had caring responsibilities, 11.1% were on sick leave, and 14.5% fell into the “Other” category. Additionally, when asked if symptoms had affected their employment status, 69% of respondents said yes, 26% said no, and 5% did not respond. Modeling efforts show that the roadmap to care for PTLDS is challenging, leading to wandering from specialty to specialty and high healthcare utilization. Utilizing a novel method of indirect reverse estimation, our lifetime risk or cumulative incidence of PTLDS estimation is at 0.003%. Lack of data collection from Irish health authorities is leaving the issue of the cost of LD and PTLDS hard to address, despite efforts from our single-site study.

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