UKH

All we needed...

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/oct/29/tick-borne-encephalitis-fou...

Yeah, great. I'm a tick magnet.

Worth noting that there is a TBE vaccine. If you are in the risk area then maybe worth getting it. 

perhaps we need vaccination as they have in Germany, booster every 3 years according to my wife

Sounds like it. Just looked it up - around £65 a shot.

Yeah, I got it with a load of others when I was going to the Altai mountains, so couldn't have told you how much it was (I got loads of things!). I think it lasts around 3 years, from memory. I don't think £65 is too bad for 3 years of protection from a horrible disease!! 

When I was vaccinated against Japanese Encephalitis the Dr said there might be flu like symptoms. Understatement of the year, for the next few days I felt like my head had been continuously punched by a pro boxer. Still, better than getting the disease.

It is a tricky one. My wife and I had the immunization, as have our children, as we come from one of the worst TBE hotspots in Germany. However, we will have had prior exposure in any case, as we picked up  tons of tick bites before the vaccine was available, and only a tiny fraction of infections result in encephalitis, most will go unnoticed or feel like a cold.

As long as there are a few isolated cases I would probably not bother, same as I would not yet get a West Nile Fever jab even if the vaccine became available soon. That may change, though, if due to climate change there will be more moskito born cases in Europe.

Being diligent with removing ticks is probably enough, and is anyway essential due to Lyme disease, for which there is no vaccine (yet). However, that is one I would definitely get once it will be available: Much greater likelihood of infection plus a more serious disease.

CB

Is TBE not more serious if you get it badly? I thought it was one that made your brain swell up etc. Maybe fewer occurrences, but I'd pay for the vaccine every few years just incase I was one of the unlucky ones!!
Thankfully it seems to be just down south for now, will watch to see if it migrates north too.

Yes, I am keenly awaiting the Lymes vaccine, I will be first in the queue for that one!!

Lyme is probably even more serious, you can also get CNS infection long after the original tick bite. Overall probably more common than severe TBE. 

CB

I really don't want either of them to be honest! I'm all up for getting whatever vaccines are going! Lol

I had a colleague at uni who managed to get both with full symptoms from a single tick bite. She was out for a few months.

CB

The chance of getting Lyme disease from a tick bite is reduced if you manage to find and remove the tick quickly (under 12 hours I think is recommended). Does anyone know if that is the case for TBE, or if you'd potentially catch it as soon as you were bitten?

From my understanding when I had the vaccinations, it's building immunity, so it is a 2nd jab one month after, 3rd after around 12mths, after which it's 3 yearly or so.

Yes, you still need to be diligent as said above, because of lymes disease which may or may not shows any visible symptoms at all. This year was horrendous for ticks.

Lymes, time period is considered irrelevant but squeezing or not removing them carefully greater increases the chance you'll squirt what's in the tick into yourself. 

The tbe jabs.. don't get one if you've got a cold or other man flu like symptoms like I did. Seemed to knock me out for a couple of weeks. 

Same. Both the Lyme disease bacteria and the TBE viruses are carried in tick saliva, which the tick will not eject in large amounts until it has drilled deep enough into the skin and starts feeding. Especially the small tick nymphs do take some time to penetrate the skin, which is also why they tend to crawl up your legs to where the skin is thinner. Don't forget your genital area if you look for ticks! Of course this is not black and white. Sometimes a tick gets lucky and hits a capillary right away, but statistically it remains correct.

Also, it is better to shear off the tick, even if some mouth parts remain stuck in the skin, rather than squeeze it with a forceps or even worse, suffocate it with glue or such. Both can lead to increased release of potentially infectious saliva.

CB

Yes, it kills you.

This does raise some serious questions about things like re-wilding concepts and the explosion in dog ownership.  Having never known humans to get ticks here in Guernsey in the 40+ years I've lived here we're suddenly getting cases appearing. We don't have tick-bearing wild animals like deer, but we do have a ridiculous number of dogs now.

TBE kills a very small percentage of people, certainly less than the flu or in particular measles. Both are much more serious diseases. 

Ticks will have always been around, they also use mice and rats as hosts. 

CB

Rewilding with wolves and lynx might help with the deer...

We've had those forever (& rabbits & cows), yet ticks were never seen anywhere other than on cats & dogs.

This is back to front.  A 2011 review of 114 deaths supposedly caused by Lyme disease in the US between 1999 and 2003 concluded that only one could be attributed solely to the effects of the disease. In contrast, there were 11 deaths from TBE in Europe in 2014/2015 alone. Probably harder to compare the sub-lethal effects, but TBE often results in long-standing cognitive damage.