– We get calls from people all over the country about what to do with tick bites. This also applies to people outside the traditional tick areas, who have visited other parts of the country, says doctor Harald Reiso on the emergency telephone at the tick center at Sørlandet hospital.
Traditionally, there are forest areas in coastal areas in Agder, Telemark, Vestfold and Buskerud that are at risk of infection by tick bites.
– What signs of your own body should hikers react to?
The doctor at the tick center and the Norwegian Institute of Public Health’s biologist and tick expert Arnulf Soleng agree:
– When the red ring around a sting grows to five centimeters in diameter, you should consult a doctor, preferably before.
Giant tick found: Runs after prey
High demand
Varden reports high demand after vaccination hours and tick vaccine in Grenland.
– In any case, it is good with great demand for vaccines in a district with a lot of ticks. The vaccine protects well against the TBE virus. But the term “tick vaccine” may have contributed to many people believing that the vaccine protects against something new and more than it actually does, Soleng tells Dagbladet.
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Ticks in Norwegian nature mainly bring with them two «human diseases»:
TBE (tick-borne encephalitis) and Lyme disease.
TBE-infected people have been registered for the first time on the east side of the Oslo Fjord – in Vestby and in Fredrikstad. And new places with registered ticks are constantly coming, also north of the traditional outer border Dønna in Nordland.
Testing new vaccine
NIPH expert Soleng explains in simple terms the way to protect yourself:
– TBE / inflammation of the central nervous system has the vaccine that protects. But there is no documented treatment that works. For Lyme disease, it is the opposite – no vaccine, but treatment with antibiotics.
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This summer, testing of a newly developed vaccine against the borrelia bacterium with the ambition that it can be on the market in 2025, reports the Finnish broadcaster Yle Wednesday.
Between 15,000 and 20,000 people over the age of five will be tested under the auspices of Blekinge University College in Sweden in collaboration with the pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and Valneva.
– A couple of basic rules apply anyway. Wear long trousers and cover yourself at the ankles. Mosquito repellents on the outside of the clothes can also reduce the risk. And in turn: Remove ticks from the body within 24 hours.
Here is the National Institute of Public Health’s complete description of tick diseases.
CHILDREN’S STOMACH: The red and inflamed area around the puncture at the navel has expanded rapidly. Photo: Private / Flåttsenteret, Sørlandet hospital.
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From six to 70 cases
Only 0.3 percent of ticks carry the TBE virus against between 20 and 30 percent with the borrelia bacterium.
Last year, about 7,000 people in this country were treated with antibiotics for Lyme disease in the skin.
Before 2018, there were only 6-12 cases of TBE / nerve disease.
Then something happened. Last year, more than 70 TBE cases were registered.
The infection has so far not taken human lives in this country.
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