Ticks: TBE continues to spread

Larissa Melville completed her traineeship in the editorial team of . After studying biology at Ludwig Maximilians University and the Technical University of Munich, she first got to know digital media online at Focus and then decided to learn medical journalism from scratch.

More about the experts All content is checked by medical journalists.

MunichThe TBE virus has been present in parts of Germany for a long time. The pathogen is transmitted by ticks. The risk of being infected by an arachnid sting continues to increase. Because the eight-legged crawlers are increasingly spreading.

Many people are afraid of tick bites. Rightly so, because the small bloodsuckers can also transmit TBE (early summer meningoencephalitis), a special form of meningitis, in addition to Lyme disease. Not every tick carries the pathogens that cause disease. In some areas, however, the risk is particularly high - and the number of risk regions continues to increase, as reported by the Robert Koch Institute (RKI).

Saxony is now a risk area

Many districts in Baden-Würtenberg, Bavaria, southern Hesse and south-eastern Thuringia have long been considered high-risk areas for TBE - and they will continue to do so. In addition, the TBE virus occurs more frequently in individual areas in Central Hesse (Marburg-Biedenkopf district), in Saarland (Saar-Palatinate district) and in Rhineland-Palatinate (Birkenfeld district). Since last year, however, additional areas have been added: In Bavaria, two regions bordering existing risk areas were added - the Ostallgäu district and the city of Hof and in Thuringia the Greiz district. In addition, Saxony is affected for the first time, namely the Vogtlandkreis district.

This means that there are currently a total of 145 districts in Germany as high-risk areas for TBE. As such, the RKI defines areas in which more than one TBE case per 100,000 inhabitants has occurred within five years.

Protective vaccination

People from other regions rarely get sick with the dangerous infection - but it does happen. Therefore, the RKI advises to always have TBE as the cause in the back of your mind during the tick season when you have flu-like symptoms. In addition, the Standing Vaccination Commission at the RKI (STIKO) recommends that every person who lives in a risk area and could come into contact with ticks through walks or gardening, for example, be vaccinated against the virus.

A few years ago the topic of TBE was very present - many people got vaccinated. But then the vaccination rate began to stagnate and even fell - despite the steadily increasing prevalence. The RKI emphasizes, however, that a large proportion of infections can be prevented by increasing the vaccination quota, especially in circles with a high TBE risk.

Protection against tick bites

In addition, it is advisable to protect yourself against the tick bite to prevent infection. This has another positive effect: You are also protected against Lyme disease, against which there is currently no vaccination. The most important tips:

Wear long pants and long-sleeved shirts.
Tuck your pants into your socks and your shirt into your pants.
You can discover the little beasts more easily on light, single-colored clothing.
Use anti-tick remedies and note that they only work for a few hours.
Search yourself and your children for ticks after spending time in the country. Also, check the pubic and groin area, as well as the head, especially in children.
Avoid forays through the undergrowth and stay on the path.
Wash your worn clothes at at least 60 degrees.
Treat your pets with tick repellants.

After meningitis there is a risk of consequential damage

Early summer meningoencephalitis is inflammation of the meninges, the brain or, in rare cases, the spinal cord. Around 300 cases from Germany are reported to the RKI every year. The disease is triggered by the TBE virus, which is transmitted to humans through a tick bite.

The onset of the disease occurs about one to two weeks after the bite - fever and headache are among the first signs. The TBE infection does not always go without complications: In extreme cases, life-threatening symptoms such as respiratory paralysis and long-term damage including concentration disorders, paralysis and epileptic seizures as well as mental disabilities occur.

The current map of the TBE risk areas of the RKI can be found here: http://www.rki.de/DE/Content/InfAZ/F/FSME/Karte_FSME.pdf?__blob=publicationFile

Sources:

Epidemiological Bulletin 21/2015 of the Robert Koch Institute

Robert Koch Institute: www.rki.de/DE/Content/InfAZ/F/FSME/FSME_node.html (accessed on May 28, 2015)

Tags: gpp organ systems tcm