Fig. 1

Flow chart of patient inclusion. ^aOne patient was included in the group of patients with fever after a recent tick bite but was switched to the EM group as the GP also reported multiple EM. ^bEM diagnosis was later disputed by the patient’s GP. ^cEM < 5 cm without recall of tick bite (n =  5) or a known delay in appearance of < 2 days (n = 1). Abbreviations: d, days; EM, erythema migrans; GP, general practitioner; ICD, informed consent document; NA, missing data