With 23 departments placed by Météo France on orange vigilance in the heat wave, beware if you try to seek a little freshness in the forests, you could come home with ticks capable of transmitting Lyme disease. A study published Wednesday by Inrae reveals that 14% of the world’s population has been affected by Lyme disease after a tick bite.
In France, between 25,000 and 68,500 cases of Lyme borreliosis were diagnosed each year over the period 2009-2020. An underestimated figure because the symptoms are diverse and varied (fevers, headaches, etc.) and difficult to diagnose.
The best protection? Your outfit!
Your best protection against ticks: your clothes! Long clothes, tight at the ankles, and covering the elbows to form a barrier. Light-colored clothing also makes it easier to spot insects. Instead, choose to walk on paths, away from trees and bushes, since ticks are about one meter above the ground.
One meter is not high, it is child’s height, so it is advisable to put a hat on for the little ones.
Prevention continues once the walk in the forest is over, says Alice Raffetin, head of the Lyme disease reference center in Villeneuve Saint-Georges. “You absolutely have to inspect all the skin, the places you can’t see well like under the buttocks or in the scalp. You have to repeat the inspection of the body several days in a row, because sometimes the ticks are so small that ‘we don’t see them and it’s when they eat that they get bigger and we can see them better,’ she explains.
If you notice a tick bite, use a tick puller to extract it from your skin. The following days, if a red plate appears, it is a symptom suggestive of Lyme disease, you must then consult and an antibiotic treatment will be prescribed.