Those who stay in the summer in the nature, you must expect a tick bite and the possibility of infection. Lyme disease is the most common tick-borne disease in Germany. A cause for panic, a bite is not but still, The risk of Lyme disease, the treatment usually is low, not a problem.
However, it is sometimes a challenge to recognize the infection. If left untreated, the Borrelia can cause serious and longer lasting problems.
Prompt removal can prevent infection
According to estimates, 60,000 to 200,000 people are infected in Germany about a tick bite with Lyme disease. The pathogen can affect, among other things, the nervous system, joints and the skin, very rarely, the heart.
The disease is caused by various species of Borrelia bacteria that can be found in the gut of the tick. The tick begins to suck blood, Hiking glands the Borrelia bacteria in their saliva and can be transmitted with the saliva on the Bitten. Until it comes to pass, however, for several hours. Therefore, a rapid removal of the tick can prevent infection.
Important to know is that Only a small part of the tick contains Borrelia, which is, among other things, by the stage of development of the animals dependent and regionally different. “In the case of the larvae it is about one per cent, in the case of the nymphs, there are ten and in the adult animals, 20 percent,” says Volker Fingerle National reference centre for Borrelia in oberschleissheim. As the nymphs called young ticks.
Transmission is not researched well
Add to this that not every bite from an infected tick, the organisms on the human body are transferred. And not each of the excitation power of the Bitten sick. According to the Robert Koch Institute is 0.3 to 1.4% of tick bites are to be expected later, with a clinically detectable disease. In most cases infection is without symptoms of the disease, the body eliminates the pathogen.
To date it is largely unclear why the Borrelia move always to the people, and a disease cause and to whom it applies, where appropriate. Among the factors that influence the risk of infection:
- What kind of Borrelie in a tick slumbers,
- the immune system of the host and
- his current defense force.
“Biologically this is all a very complex process, which is so far poorly understood,” says Fingerle.
Redness Of The Skin, Muscle Pain, Paralysis
When it comes to an infection, this is in about 80 to 90 percent of the cases on the skin: the bite around point occurs a few days or weeks after the bite of a ring-shaped redness. This is also called the wall blush, because it spreads slowly to the outside.
Sometimes flu-like symptoms occur, such as muscle and joint pain, or fever. Who after a tick bite such symptoms, should go to the doctor, which can check the infection and treated with antibiotics.
In about ten percent of the infections it comes to infestation of the nervous system. Experts speak of early Neuroborreliosis. “It can get on your nerves due to the inflammation of the face to a facial paralysis,” explains Sebastian Rauer, also from the University of Freiburg.
Often the spinal nerves of the spinal cord are affected. This caused some sharp, burning and stabbing pains, which extend like a belt. These occur, according to Rough especially at night and to speak on the pain meds hardly. In the further course, it can lead to paralysis of legs and arms.
“Also this Form of the disease is to be treated with a two – to three-week antibiotic therapy well,” says Harsh. “The discomfort comes to a rapid relief, the disease to heal in most cases without consequences.”
Difficult Diagnosis
The infection will be overlooked long, it can lead to a late neuroborreliosis. The bacteria infect the spinal cord and the brain, the consequences include paralysis and bladder disorders. This stage of the disease is treated with antibiotics. “In this case, that means that you can stop the disease, at least, and another can prevent progression,” says Harsh, but the complaints remained in this stage often.
Difficulties occasionally, the diagnosis of the disease, “although it is actually only because of the symptoms,” says Harsh. It could happen that a Patient or doctor due to the discomfort to think of other diseases. The back pain could indicate a trapped nerve and then an orthopaedic – and, in the case of effect-free therapy to.
Conversely, Lyme disease should be used frequently as a diagnostic for other diseases, says Volker Fingerle from the reference centre for Borrelia. “A lot of people false interpretations of their symptoms.” The definite diagnosis can in some cases be tricky, there are extreme cases that are difficult to be assessed. “But those are rare,” says Fingerle.
Other tick-borne diseases in Germany is significantly less. This includes the tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) and Human Granulocytic Anaplasmosis count.
Bite or sting? Editors ‘ note
Like is being discussed, whether tick bite or sting. As you open the skin with their mouthparts and hook, and then with a kind of proboscis in the blood to absorb, both names conceivable. We decided after discussions with ticks researchers for the Bite, the RKI speaks, however, rather from the tick bite.