1. How to protect yourself?
Clothing:
Wear light-colored clothing (to spot ticks) that covers legs and arms. Tuck your pants into your socks.
Protections:
Spray clothing, footwear and body parts that come into contact with grass and bushes with tick spray.
Behaviors:
Walk on forest paths and avoid contact with grass and bushes.
When you get home, check your body and clothing for ticks. Ticks like warm, moist areas where the skin is thin, such as the back of the knees, groin, inner thighs, buttocks, neck, nape of the neck and armpits.
2. What to do after a tick bite?
Document the bite:
Take a photo of the tick still in the skin for insurance purposes.
Remove tick:
Using tick tweezers or tweezers, grasp the tick close to the skin, gently twist and pull. Then disinfect the area. If the head remains in the skin, have it removed by a doctor as soon as possible. Instructions available on video.
Send the tick for analysis:
Place the tick in an airtight, dated bag, then freeze it. Send it to REDlabs for PCR analysis (Borrelia, Bartonella, Babesia, etc.). We recommend testing for all pathogens.
Do I need a consultation?
Seek prompt medical advice if you develop flu-like symptoms, pain or erythema migrans. If chronic symptoms occur weeks or months after the bite, consult a specialist.
Dr. Horowitz's questionnaire can help assess the likelihood of infection. There are many resources available on this site about Lyme borreliosis, bartonellosis, and babesiosis.
3. What diseases do ticks transmit?
A study has shown that up to 83% of ticks in Switzerland carry at least one infectious pathogen (bacteria, parasite or virus) [1]. Some infections can be serious (even fatal) and become chronic. It's important not to take a tick bite lightly. In the event of symptoms following a tick bite (some of which may not appear until years later!), many infections need to be considered.
If you experience symptoms after a tick bite (some may only appear years later!), there are many infections that need to be considered.
The most common are:
But also:
4. Is there a vaccine?
1. Lyme borreliosis:
There is currently no vaccine against Lyme borreliosis. The only vaccine available (LYMERix®) was withdrawn from the market in 2002, as it was deemed ineffective and in low demand. A new vaccine, VLA15, is currently under development.
2. Tick-borne encephalitis (TBE):
The Swiss Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) recommends vaccination against tick-borne encephalitis for all adults and children (generally aged six and over) living or temporarily staying in high-risk areas. In Switzerland, all cantons are considered at-risk areas, with the exception of Ticino for the time being.
3. Other important infections:
At present, there are no vaccines against other common infections such as babesiosis, bartonellosis, rickettsiosis, anaplasmosis and ehrlichiosis, tularemia and others.
5. Accident or health insurance?
A tick bite is considered an accident and must be reported as such. Doctors and specialists are often unaware of this concept.
As the Suva website states:
"It is a sudden and involuntary harmful injury to the human body caused by an extraordinary external event. Such an event, if it requires treatment, must therefore be reported to the victim's accident insurance as soon as possible."