“How to Prevent Lyme Disease: Tips and Symptoms”

Every year, more than one and a half million people contract a tick bite, of which about 27,000 people contract Lyme disease. What is Lyme and how do you prevent it?

‘I’ve been bedridden for two and a half years because of this little creature,’ says Risja Steeghs (22) in You Will Have It (JZHMH). While on vacation in France, she was bitten by a tick at the age of ten. It is infected with the Borrelia bacteria, which can have consequences for nerve tissue, joints, skin and heart. It was not until eight years later that Risja was diagnosed with Lyme, an infectious disease. She now has chronic Lyme, her mother is her carer and she is in a wheelchair because she suffers from cramps.

What are the symptoms?
‘After a few days I got a red circle in my side’, says Sandra Eeren in Nails with Cups. She was bitten by a tick in 2004 and wrote the book here Lyme, hell on earth about. This ring can appear up to three months after a tick bite, according to the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM). Only half of the Lyme patients actually get a red circle after a tick bite. An evenly colored spot develops in one in three people.

Fatigue, a lot of muscle and joint pain, nerve pain and difficulty processing information are the symptoms that wheelchair model and tough Elianne Speksnijder (33) of the Bart de Graaff Foundation, which helps young people with a physical disability to set up a business, suffered when she was bitten by a tick when she was fourteen. In a later stage there is a risk of paralysis of facial muscles, double vision, loss of strength in the legs, painful or swollen joints and heart complaints. Early birds On. Just like with Risja, Elianne was also diagnosed with Lyme eight years later.

What parts of the body are ticks on?
Every year, more than a million people in the Netherlands are bitten by a tick in the woods, dunes, park or their own garden. They like to nest in warm places such as the groin, back of the knees, armpits, buttocks, behind the ears and around the hairline in your neck, where they suck blood. They can then grow from a tiny spider to the size of a pea.

It number of tick bites fell by almost a third last year, according to research by RIVM and Wageningen University. However, according to them, that is no reason to be less careful. One in five ticks in the Netherlands is infected with the Borrelia bacteria, which can cause Lyme disease. The chance of actually contracting this disease is estimated to be two in a hundred tick bites. Each year, 27,000 people contract Lyme disease after a tick bite.

What can you do to prevent a tick bite?
Tick ​​care, So! ‘What we recommend, if you really go out into nature, is to wear light, tick-resistant clothing’, says Annemarie Bevers of the Lyme Association in Box. ‘Then you can see if there are ticks on it.’ In addition, it is wise to wear long pants, long sleeves and closed shoes and to cover your head in shady areas with tall grass, where ticks are often found. Through Tekenradar.nl you can see where ticks are currently being reported in the Netherlands.

If, despite these measures, you do have a tick, do not squeeze it when you pull it straight out of the skin with tick tweezers or pointy tweezers without ridges or push it away from you with a tick card. Then keep an eye on the spot for another three months and go to the doctor if a ring, spot-shaped rash or complaints appear. This could be Lyme.