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A tick almost broke the life of Rémi Beauchamp a year ago. After being stung, redness appeared on her belly. He was in Vermont in the United States where he visited a doctor.
"They treated me there for cellulitis, an infected insect bite. It was a bad diagnosis, "says Beauchamp.
Back in Quebec a few days later, his health deteriorated. "I had muscle pain, body aches, headaches," he adds.
Beauchamp's family doctor diagnosed Lyme disease. He had to take antibiotics for three weeks, but did not have any sequelae. In order to avoid similar situations, the Montérégie Public Health Department has been giving pharmacists in its territory a few days to offer antibiotics as a preventive measure to people who have been bitten by a tick.
"All pharmacies in the Montérégie can distribute the antibiotic if the person was stung in a risk area, "informs the Director of Public Health of Montérégie, Dr. Julie Loslier.
You must have been stung in Montérégie, in Estrie, Outaouais or in Center-du-Québec. The tick must remain on the skin 24 hours or more.
"If the tick has remained for more than 24 hours and has been removed for less than three days, so 72 hours is the window period or you can prescribe this antibiotic as a single dose, "says Dr. Loslier.
" It avoids, if the person is bitten, that the bacteria grows in the body, "says pharmacist Sofiane Saadi who has already prescribed the antibiotic to a patient last week
"This is doxycycline, it is an antibiotic of the family of tetracyclines, so two tablets of this drug of 100mg."
It is recommended to patients to monitor the onset of symptoms in the next 30 days because Lyme disease can cause joint, heart and neurological problems.
Doxycycline as a preventive measure would be very effective, but it can not be prescribed to pregnant women and children under 6 he years
"I think it's really important that people do it quickly," says Rémi Beauchamp. He would have liked to have access to it quickly. This would have saved him a lot of pain.
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