Doctor carefully remove ticks with tweezers

Remove ticks

Warn doctors: Remove ticks carefully with tweezers

10.05.2011

Ticks are among the most dangerous animals in Germany due to the transmission risk of Lyme disease and tick-borne encephalitis (TBE). To minimize the risk of infection after a tick bite, the adhering animals should be removed as soon as possible with a narrow tweezers or a so-called ticks, warned the Professional Association of Paediatricians (BVKJ).

Due to the increased risk of tick bites, the whole body should urgently be searched for sticking ticks after an outdoor stay, health authorities and physicians warn since the weather has gotten a little warmer. In particular, the soft folds of the skin of the popliteal fossa, armpits and groin, in which the small bloodsuckers prefer to bite, are to be checked particularly thoroughly. Adhesive animals should be removed in a tick bite BVKJ according to the best with a narrow tweezers immediately. Because in the first few hours after the tick bite the transmission risk of possible diseases is still relatively low.

Carefully remove ticks with narrow forceps
The professional association of paediatricians recommends parents who discover a tick with their child to remove them with a small forceps as soon as possible. According to Ulrich Fegeler of the BVKJ in Cologne, the parents should carefully stretch the skin in the area of ​​the tick, then best with a special plastic tweezers the tick in the head area (as close as possible above the skin) and then carefully, without rotation, careful pull out. The puncture site should be thoroughly disinfected after removal of the tick, explained Fegeler. If it is not possible to completely remove the tick and it remains stuck in the wound, is due to the risk of inflammation in any case consult a doctor, said the expert. When removing the animals, according to Fegeler, care must also be taken to ensure that the body of the tick is not squeezed or squeezed, as otherwise the ticks release their gastric contents together with the contained pathogens into the wound, thus considerably increasing the risk of infection. The same applies to treatment with alcohol, fire, glue or oil, warned the expert.

Ticks transmit Lyme disease and TBE
Ticks can transmit both Lyme disease and tick-borne encephalitis, whereby the TBE viruses can be delivered into the wound immediately after the bite, while the Borreliosis-causing bacteria are transmitted after 12 to 24 hours, said the Association of Pediatric and Oncology youth doctors. In general, after a tick bite the puncture site should be closely monitored in the following days, as a possible inflammation or Lyme disease is often already recognizable at the wound. Thus, a red, spreading patch around the bite wound is a typical sign of Lyme disease and a doctor should urgently be consulted, said the experts of the BVKJ. The same applies if flu-like symptoms occur in the days after the tick bite, because both Lyme disease and early-summer meningoencephalitis are characterized by corresponding symptoms in the early stages.

Health risks from the transmission of TBE and Lyme disease
The health risk of tick-borne diseases should by no means be underestimated, as Lyme disease and FSME are in danger of significant long-term effects, the experts warned. So explained Dr. Reinhard Kaiser, Chief Physician of Neurology at the Municipal Hospital Pforzheim at a press conference at the University of Hohenheim end of March, that TBE initially severe harm-like symptoms such as fever, head and limb pain significant health problems, such as paralysis, breathing problems, impaired awareness or speech - and balance disorders follow. Dr. Emperor suffers „Half of the patients (...) even ten years after the infection from paralysis, respiratory failure, balance disorders or swallowing and speech disorders“. The expert also cited from a study in which 30 percent of study participants within ten years of the consequences of the tick-borne encephalitis died. In order to roughly estimate the risk of TBE infection after a tick bite, those concerned usually already have a look at the so-called tick cards, in which all risk areas are recorded in relatively detail. The risk of TBE transmission is by no means the same everywhere, and in some regions this can almost be ruled out. If you want to avoid the risk of TBE infection from the outset, you can also protect yourself with an appropriate vaccine, although possible side effects can not be ruled out.

Chronic Lyme disease as a significant burden on health
Lyme disease, unlike FSME, can be relatively effectively treated with antibiotics, but only in the early stages of the disease. If the Lyme disease has a chronic course, treatment successes can hardly be achieved with antibiotics. Since the disease is often recognized too late and the pathogens at diagnosis usually have already begun to scatter in the body, the chronic forms of Lyme disease, however, are relatively widespread. For those affected, the chronic Lyme disease in addition to the typical Lyme disease symptoms often brings significant fatigue and exhaustion, joint and limb pain and occasionally blurred vision and heart problems. The Lyme disease pathogens in the chronic stage of the disease can affect not only other organs, joints and muscles but also the central and peripheral nervous system. (Fp)

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Picture credits: Tamara Hoffmann