HEALTH – A simple walk in the woods can book in for quite a surprise. Because in this environment live ticks. Those, if they bite, can transmit a disease that is still too little support: Lyme disease, also called borreliosis, Lyme.
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It is at the end of the 70s, this disease was described for the first time, in a region of the name of Lyme, from which it derives its name, in Connecticut (United States).
This bacterial infection, globally prevalent, known in France a significant increase of diagnosed cases. In 2018, more than 67,000 cases were recorded, compared to the 45,000 in the previous year.
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After weeks of confinement, many are feeling the need to escape for a few hours in the forest. Here is just what you need to know about Lyme disease before leaving.
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How is one infected by the bacteria ?
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All ticks are not infected with the bacterium Borrelia. According to the Institut de veille sanitaire (Invs), there are many species of ticks, not all of which are also susceptible to Borrelia. The more found on the man would be the tick Ixodes ricinus. This is it:
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When you walk in the forest, a tick can potentially bite any part of your body. But generally, points to the Invs, it is mainly the lower limbs that are affected.
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When she bites you, ” says the national Agency of sanitary security of food (Anses), the tick wants to feed on your blood. Moreover, it is as well that it could itself be infected with Borrelia by sucking blood from an animal. It cannot, therefore, “that” you transmit through their saliva, bacteria. Usually, adds the Handles, the bite is painless.
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How is the infection ?
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Lyme disease follows three phases. “During the primary phase, this creates an erythema migrans, around the bite: a plate-the red cockade, with a central more clear and the periphery is darker, sometimes purplish,” says on The Most of The Obs Christian Perronne, a specialist in infectious diseases at the university hospital Raymond Poincaré in Garches.
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This redness normally disappears within a few weeks. “It is in the secondary phase, which may be insidious, to the extent where the symptoms are multiple and often non-visible,” says infectious diseases physician. At that stage, which appears if one has not been treated by antibiotics and which lasts from a few weeks to a few months, more than 70 symptoms, according to Science and the Futurecan appear (see below). In the third phase, which may begin a few months or a few years after the bite, the symptoms become chronic.
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What are the symptoms ?
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During the first phase, the redness caused by the bite may be associated with fever, indicates the site dedicated to the health of the government.
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The second phase is characterized by “several isolated manifestations or associated manifestations of joints, skin, cardiac, neurological, and conditions (such as chronic fatigue)”. Examples: joint pain, headache, concentration disorders and, less frequently, arthritis in large joints, conjunctivitis, disorders of the heart.
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During the third phase, “can appear manifestations of tertiary-type articular, cutaneous, neurological, muscular, or heart,” says the website of the government.
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“Lyme disease, it is ultimately a bit of everything and anything”, sums up Christian Perronne on Science and the Future, showing that the symptoms are endless and most importantly, that they are hardly identifiable with Lyme disease.
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What are the treatments ?
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This is where the shoe pinches. Antibiotic treatment during the first phase helps to prevent disease, ensure the Inlets. But the redness disappears. And the symptoms are too multiple for the patient or the doctors are thinking of office, that it is a Lyme disease. “There is the danger, because doctors are often focused on the main symptom, without making the link with Lyme disease. However, this state can last months, weeks, years. A result, it treats the patients for another disease, or they are told that it is in their head, that it is a depression, and we are left with patients in psychiatric follow-up,” laments Christian Perronne.
To detect the disease, serological tests exist, but they are controversial. “It is calibrated primarily on the bacterial strain american. As a result, too many patients were never diagnosed,” said infectiologist. Moreover, this test is often done too early.
With respect to treatments in the second and third phases, they are long. Three to four weeks of antibiotics during the second, if the patient does relapse not. During the third phase, their effectiveness is less good, and they are associated with other treatments.
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How to avoid contracting the disease ?
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In the forest, wear warm clothing, advises the Handles. On the way home, remember to inspect your body. If you find ticks, “remove immediately any attached ticks using a tire-tick, tweezers or fine default your nails (do not use ether or any other product), these products might in fact push the tick to bite even more. Finally, if a redness, such as that described above appear, consult your doctor without wait.
Get back to nature, to the more quickly. The trees, the grass, the sun, the ocean, or the sea, lakes and rivers, the mountain or the countryside. After two months of confinement and a déconfinement progressive, this year, perhaps even more than the other, the need to escape in full nature becomes pressing.
However, the conditions of this evasion will not necessarily be met. Difficult to fold the baggage in this period is still uncertain. Frontiers that are not always open, the virus is still present and the economic crisis have something to calm the ardor of most adventurers.
This is why The HuffPost Life offers, from Wednesday, 17 to Sunday, June 28, tracks to thoroughly enjoy nature this summer, and this one is in the city or the sea, that we have the financial means or not, we can go far away or be stuck at home.
See also on The HuffPost: A hero of Koh-Lanta gives you his tips to spend a weekend in the middle of the forest
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