Lyme disease pathogen detected in many children

Lyme disease pathogens detected in many children nationwide

04/12/2012

According to experts, about 40 percent of ticks could carry Lyme disease pathogens. The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) has now published a study, according to which about one in 14 adolescents had ever been infected with the bacteria. The pathogens of Lyme disease are therefore spread nationwide among children.

One in 14 adolescents has been infected with Lyme disease
Around seven percent of 14- to 17-year-olds have already been bitten by a tick infected with Lyme disease at least once. This shows a nationwide representative study of the RKI. The data for the evaluation was largely provided by the large "KiGGS Survey on Child and Youth Health". "This is the first time we have been able to show that Lyme disease is endemic nationwide," explains Hendrik Wilking, epidemiologist at RKI, to the news agency "dpa". According to other studies, however, only one out of 100 cases is expected to have a manifest onset of the disease.

In three percent of three- to six-year-olds could be detected antibodies to Borrelia in the blood. In addition, children in rural areas are more affected with 7.1 percent than city children with just under four percent. Only 4.1 percent of the girls and 5.5 percent of the boys had antibodies detected and of German -born children with 5.5 percent much more common than children with a migrant background with 1.9 percent. The researchers suspect that the different recreational behavior could be a reason for this. With age, the proportion of people with contagion increases, among other things, because the antibodies last up to ten years in the blood, write the authors of the study. "What surprised the authors, however: even more than dogs raise cats as pets, the risk of Lyme disease infection," says Wilking. The ticks could jump on the children while petting with the animals.

Treatment of Lyme disease with antibiotics
According to estimates, between three and 25 percent of citizens in Germany have been bitten by an infected tick. The transmitted bacteria cause Lyme disease, which is reflected by the typical Wanderer. Affected individuals often have a growing red spot with irregular boundaries. In contrast to early-summer meningoencephalitis (TBE), vaccination is not possible. If it is not treated, it can lead to inflammation of the joints, heart, nerves or brain. "That's why it's important to remind the parents of small children to carefully scan the children in the evening, possibly remove ticks immediately and disinfect the wound," advises Wilking. With the supposed home remedies such as glue or oil to suffocate the tick, but here is not the desired effect to achieve. In this way, only the risk of infection is increased because the animals emptying their stomach contents into the puncture wound and thereby more bacteria and viruses transmitted into the human body, explains Prof. Dr. med. Ute Mackenstedt, head of the first Southern German "Ticks Congress".

Ticks are resistant
Ticks need high humidity to survive. In addition, sufficient host animals are needed for their blood meal, which includes hedgehogs, foxes, mice and other forest mammals, as well as certain temperatures. The animals can survive frost down to minus 20 degrees. Their activity increases but only from five to six degrees plus.

Tick ​​expert Christine Klaus from the Friedrich Loeffler Institute (FLI) in Jena explains that contact with humans usually does not go well for ticks. Due to the lack of humidity, they die quickly when they enter the man's heated apartment.

Scientists assume that the ticks have spread north in recent years. Czech researchers discovered the animals at a height of 1000 meters. Whether this leads to the conclusion that the number of ticks has increased overall, however, can not be clearly determined due to the lack of data. (Ag)

Read about ticks:
People for ticks a wrong decision
Tick-risk in southern Germany very high
Doctors: carefully remove ticks with tweezers
The tick season has begun
Prevention: Do not panic with ticks

Image: Tamara Hoffmann