Lyme Disease: Features of Diagnostic and Management Strategies amongst Latvian General Practitioners

Introduction: Lyme disease (LD)—disease caused by bacteria, spread by ticks. The most common sign is an erythema migrans that begins at the site of a tick bite about a week after it has occurred. LD has been treated by antibiotics. Aim: To figure out the most common LD diagnostic and treatment strategies among general practitioners (GPs) in Latvia and evaluate it basing on worldwide guidelines. Materials and methods: Quantitative cross-sectional study. Main material: GPs of different gender and age. Respondents (R) completed the survey voluntarily, anonymously. Data analysis done by using Microsoft Office Excel 2010 and SPSS 22.0. Results: In total, 126 R were included. 32—Riga, 46—other cities and 48—rural areas. Analysis has shown dependence between percent of using guidelines and location of GP's practice. And 70% of FD in Riga use LD guidelines in their practice, 20% use lecture materials and 10% use their previous experience. Among GPs in other cities of Latvia 46.4% use guidelines, 50%—lecture materials and only 3.6% use their previous experience. And 70.6% of GPs from rural areas base on lecture materials, 18.5% on guidelines and 11.1% on their previous experience. Analysis of knowledge about early symptoms of LD has shown that 30-45 years old GPs orient themselves in it better, then elder colleagues. Conclusions: GPs in cities use guidelines more often. Elder colleagues much worse orient themselves in theoretical information. I'm looking forward to creation of united LD diagnostic guidelines for Latvian GPs.