Landscape gardeners, greenkeepers and forestry workers walk through tall grass, scrub and woodland edges every day. Here are the facts from Statens Serum Institut on Lyme disease and TBE: how many ticks carry infection, where the tick attaches, where TBE has been found in Denmark, and how to prevent it.
Introduction
You walk through tall grass, scrub and woodland edges every day. That is where the forest tick sits waiting. A tick bite is usually harmless, but the tick can carry diseases. That is why ticks are part of the working environment in the green trades.
Lyme borreliosis
- 01About 15% of all forest ticks carry the Lyme disease bacterium.
- 02«Within one day, the risk of Lyme disease infection is very limited.» So remove the tick as quickly as possible.
- 03The first sign is a red, sharply defined ring on the skin (erythema migrans), typically 1-2 weeks after the bite. The ring can grow to more than 1 m in diameter.
- 04Every year about 180 people get neuroborreliosis, where the bacterium enters the nervous system. Most cases occur in July-September.
- 05Lyme disease is treated with antibiotics. There is no vaccine against Lyme disease.
Where does the tick attach?
The tick heads for places where the skin is thin and moist: the backs of the knees, the groin, the armpits and the hairline. Nymphs (young ticks) are only about 1 mm in size, so they are easy to miss. Check your body after work, and get a colleague to check your back.
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