Never so many ticks record year 2013

Climate change: never so many ticks

06/10/2013

In Switzerland, as many people as in 2013 have never been infected with the tick virus FSME. According to experts, the risk no longer applies only to individual regions, but to the entire country.

Already more cases than in the previous record year
According to the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH), the current year was a tick-record year. So far, 172 cases of severe TBE have been reported. In the record year 2011, there were 167 cases. „Since the year 2000, the number of reported diseases in the Early Summer Meningo-Encephalitis (TBE) virus is rather high compared to previous years,“ so the BAG. The most famous tick specialist in Switzerland, Dr. med. Norbert Satz, told the „Sonntagszeitung“, that the long, but cold winter favored the survival of the ticks. In addition, the increase is also due to the long warm summer, when many people moved into nature.

Vaccination recommendations for the whole of Switzerland
The early-summer meningoencephalitis TBE, which causes meningitis in 50 percent of those affected, should be clearly distinguished from the Lyme disease. The latter is a bacterial disease that can be cured by long antibiotic treatment. For TBE, however, there is only the possibility of symptom control. However, there is a preventive multiple vaccine, which is ideally started in winter. Dr. Sentence voiced against the „Sonntagszeitung“, that he considers the vaccination recommendations obsolete: „There used to be certain TBE high risk areas. But today, all of Switzerland has been infected.“ One third of those affected acquire the disease outside the classic risk zones. Therefore, according to the sentence, the vaccination recommendations should cover not only some regions but the whole of Switzerland.

Avoid tick bites as much as possible
If it comes to a tick bite, colloquially called also tick bite, it is already too late for a protection against FSME, since also a quick removal of the blood sucker does not help anymore. For in a sting, the pathogens that sit in the salivary glands of the arachnids immediately enter the human body. Therefore, ideally protect yourself from being stung at all. It's best to protect yourself by wearing long-sleeved trousers and long-sleeved tops to make it harder for the ticks to get to your skin. Since the parasites in addition to FSME can also spread various other diseases, it is always advisable to handle it carefully after a sting. After each stay in nature you should search your body for the animals. It is especially important to pay attention to the armpits, knees, neck and head, because they like to suck. (Ad)