The mobile homes that offer tick vaccination are a familiar sight outside supermarkets and grocery stores. The interest in vaccinating before the summer is usually great - but not this year.
Customers have been far fewer than before.
- It worries us that fewer people are vaccinating, says Peter Gutniak, head of the Vaccination Group. Especially that there are fewer children given that children are most at risk because they move more outdoors in nature
The decrease is confirmed by one of the major vaccine manufacturers Pfizer sold significantly fewer doses than last year.
- I think there is a fear of being infected by corona and that you may not think that you will be living outdoors to a greater extent than other years, says Peter Gutniak.
Plenty of ticks- There are plenty of ticks in the ground, says ticks expert Kajsa Glemhorn. Talking about "tick year" is meaningless, every year is tick year.
We do the interview with Kajsa Glemhorn behind a preschool in a forest hill on Lidingö and it only takes a minute before the first ticking crawls up on SVT's broadcast. The Stockholm area is one of the parts of the country where the TBE infection has been around for a long time, but every year cases of illness are found in more and more parts of the country. And even if you live in a country without a known TBE, it is a good idea to vaccinate yourself, says Kajsa Glemhorn.
- Any case must be the first and if you are out in the fields a lot, I would recommend that you vaccinate in other areas as well.
Cheap life insuranceKajsa Glemhorn says that even if it costs a little, it is a cheap life insurance
- I know several people that have gone really badly.
She recommends anyone who has been out in nature to look after clothes and skin afterwards, whether they are vaccinated or not. Borrelia is a much more common tick-borne disease and cannot be vaccinated against. Unlike TBE, it can be treated.