Ticks: More Lyme disease in the first year of the pandemic – probably because of Corona

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Health ticks

More Lyme disease in the first year of the pandemic – probably because of Corona

ARCHIVE - On the thematic service report by Lorena Simmel of June 22, 2022: Lying in wait to pounce on the prey?  Not quite.  Ticks are usually brushed off the leaves in passing.  Photo: Patrick Pleul/dpa-Zentralbild/dpa-tmn - Free of charge only for subscribers of the dpa topic service +++ dpa topic service +++

Ticks often sit on leaves and get to animals and people from there

Source: dpa-tmn

Ticks can transmit dangerous diseases. Infections with Lyme disease pathogens in Germany have been declining for a decade. In 2020, the number rose again for the first time. It could be a result of the corona pandemic.

Dhe number of Lyme disease infections transmitted by ticks rose by around eight percent in Germany in 2020 compared to the previous year. This could be a consequence of increased leisure activities in the countryside due to the restrictions imposed by the corona measures, said Dominik von Stillfried, CEO of the Central Institute for Statutory Health Insurance Physician Care in Germany (Zi). A total of around 360,000 so-called Lyme disease were diagnosed by the panel doctors, as an evaluation of the Zi showed.

The number of infections had fallen slightly since 2010. But in 2020, 465 people per 100,000 insured persons contracted the pathogen, after 429 in 2019. Doctors registered Lyme disease most frequently in Saxony: 927 per 100,000 insured persons became infected there. There were also many infections in Thuringia (780), Brandenburg (707), Bavaria (637) and Saxony-Anhalt (615). The residents of the city states of Hamburg (210) and Berlin (258) got off comparatively lightly.

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A saturated tick is examined in the laboratory

Five federal states recorded a double-digit percentage increase between 2019 and 2020: North Rhine-Westphalia, Bavaria, Schleswig-Holstein, Hamburg and Lower Saxony. In Brandenburg, on the other hand, slightly fewer patients per 100,000 insured were infected, at minus 0.4 percent.

Lyme disease is transmitted by ticks. The bacteria are found throughout Germany and can cause various diseases of the skin, nerves and joints. According to experts, these can be treated well with antibiotics. A warning sign is a ring-shaped redness around the puncture site that occurs after several days, and you should definitely see a doctor if you have one.

ARCHIVE - June 11, 2021, Baden-Wuerttemberg, Stuttgart: A tick runs over a hand.  (to dpa:

By far the highest rate of infection with Lyme disease is in Saxony

Source: dpa

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“It wasn’t until 1981 that it was discovered that a connection with this bacterium plays a role in various diseases that were described more than 100 years ago and that also affect various organ systems,” says Lyme disease specialist Helmut Eiffert from the MVZ wagnerstibbe for medical microbiology in Goettingen. The ticks suck blood from rodents carrying one of six Borrelia species and store it in their intestines.

If the ticks attach to a person, transmission does not occur immediately. “The Borrelia must first migrate to the salivary gland,” explains Eiffert. So there is a certain time window in which the tick can be removed without further consequences. It is best to grab them with a special tick card or tweezers very close to the skin or wrap them with a thread – “and then quickly and straight out with it,” as Wilking explains.

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If you don’t have any tools at hand – which is particularly common in nature – you shouldn’t wait, according to Wilking, but remove the tick with your fingernail if necessary. “The teething tools can stay in and catch fire, like a kind of pimple, but they don’t pose a health risk.” Under no circumstances should you wait until a doctor or a drugstore has reopened, because the ticks will probably already be there by then delivery of the Borrelia started.

“If the tick bites, there is an average transmission of three percent and clinical symptoms in one percent,” reports Eiffert. “Most of the time it goes away completely. However, it is possible that these bacteria are activated again years later, these are the severe cases. But we hardly ever see that anymore because antibiotics are used at an early stage.” Wilking also emphasizes: “The prognosis is very good with early detection and treatment.”

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Eiffert, who has treated many affected children in the past, points out that the offspring in particular are bitten particularly often on the head – with the risk that the typical reddening under the hair remains undetected and more severe symptoms can develop as a result.

In addition to covering clothing, thorough searching after being outdoors is the best protection against Lyme disease. If a tick is actually found, you should keep a close eye on the area around the bite site – for six weeks. If redness occurs, you should go to the doctor immediately.

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