Experts warn: 2018 increased risk of FSM: as many ticks as in ten years not | new

Experts expect that this summer there will be a greater risk of infection. The reason: There are so many ticks for a long time. Gerhard Dobler of the German Infection Research Center (DZIF) warns that "we will have the highest number of ticks in the last ten years."

Researchers predict the amount of ticks in winter

Since 2009, the researcher is studying at the Institute for Microbiology of the Bundeswehr in Munich the spread and activity of TBE virus in Germany. Ticks are the main carriers of tick-borne encephalitis (TBE), a viral meningitis. Experts have developed a model that will allow them to predict the density of ticks already in winter for next summer. The basis of this is the number of minors in a center of infection in southern Germany.

Ticks transmit FSME and Lyme disease

According to Dobler, this year's risk is "particularly high". In addition to TBE, which can also be fatal, the common male can also transmit borreliosis. Although there is a preventive vaccine against TBE, there is no vaccine available for Lyme disease. However, infections can be treated with antibiotics.

Nearly all Bavaria is the risk zone of FSM

Experts advise in all cases to pay attention to ticks, especially in TBE risk areas. There are more animals infected with viruses than elsewhere. TBE risk zones currently include 156 districts in Germany. These include Bavaria and Baden-Wuerttemberg, but also Hesse, Rhineland-Palatinate, Thuringia, Saxony and Saarland.

Experts advise people to be vaccinated against ticks

The area at risk lives or stays there longer. Vaccination is also recommended for professional groups such as foresters, foresters and farmers.

New types of ticks in Germany: common spike and Ixodes inopinatus

It is still difficult to badess the danger of new types of ticks in Germany. Parasitologists from the University of Hohenheim as well as virologists from the Institute of Microbiology of the German Armed Forces and the University of Leipzig have for the first time discovered TBE in the common corner of the woods ( Dermacentor reticulatus) in 2016.

In Germany, the German Federal Institute of Microbiology: Ixodes inopinatus. She probably immigrated us from the Mediterranean. "It is not yet known how long this species is from Germany and whether it is eligible as a TBE emitter.It would also be important to clarify if it does not bring new diseases into it. Germany, like the Mediterranean fever, "says Ute. Mackenstedt.