In ever larger parts of Germany, there is the danger of contracting a tick bite for meningitis. The number of TBE risk areas has increased to 161 districts, as the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) reports in a recent report. Accordingly, five urban and rural districts are more affected than in the previous year.
Ticks infected by FSME have been spreading in Germany from the south to the north for years. They are major carriers of tick-borne encephalitis (TBE), an inflammation of the brain and meninges. Last year, 583 cases were reported - 486 in the previous year.
The Emsland is the first district in Lower Saxony to be covered by the FSME risk areas. It is also the northernmost risk area in Germany. In the district, four TBE cases were reported in 2018. The other new risk areas are in Saxony (Sächsische Schweiz-Osterzgebirge) and in Bavaria (counties Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Landsberg am Lech and Kaufbeuren).
With the previously declared regions, FSME is widespread in almost all of Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg. Also south and central Hesse, the southeastern Thuringia as well as parts of Rhineland-Palatinate, the Saarland and Saxony are affected.
People who live, work or vacation in risk areas are advised to get vaccinated against FSME. The vaccine consists of three doses, it has to be refreshed every three to five years.
Lyme disease: danger throughout Germany
Significantly more frequently than TBE transmit ticks in Germany Lyme disease, whose pathogen occurs throughout the country. According to RKI, in Germany, an average of five out of every hundred people after a tick bite have such an infection. Estimates suggest that tens of thousands of new cases a year are diagnosed, but the diagnosis is difficult. Also, there is no effective Lyme disease vaccine.
The faster ticks are removed after a bite, the lower the risk of infection. Therefore, experts suggest that the body immediately after an outdoor stay carefully search. Anyone who discovers a tick should grab it with a pointed forceps or tick card as far as possible at the front of the bite site and remove it with gentle shaking.
Experts advise against larger turning movements. In addition, it is important not to press on the soaked body.
Bite or sting? Editor's note
It is often discussed whether ticks bite or sting. Since they open the skin with their mouthpiece and hook into it, and then absorb the blood with a kind of proboscis, both terms are conceivable. We decided to bite after talking with tick researchers, but the RKI prefers to speak of tick biting.