“Here it must be happening.” Beat Röthlisberger suggests a hedge on a bald. The now 64-year-old man stands in his garden in Thurgau, Tobel-Affeltrangen. “Back then, everything was already green, and I was busy cutting our hedge.”
at the Time, that was on Saturday, 1. June 2002. A day, the Beat Röthlisberger never forget. After working in the garden, and the showers, his wife, Margrit discovered in the evening a tick on the shoulder of her husband. You are working in a home-care nursing, removed the parasite immediately with a tick remover. As the puncture site tags was colored a bit reddish, called the Röthlisbergers on Monday as a precaution, your doctor. The mass Beat Röthlisberger felt the incident for the time being, but no special importance, especially since no complaints.
headaches, paralysis
After three days of this changed, however. As a mild, flu-symptoms were: fatigue, headache, and pain in the limbs – something completely New for the man who had been, until then, never really sick. Soon, the symptoms increased again. A week, Beat Röthlisberger was almost complaint free. A short breather. Two weeks after the unpleasant ticks on contact it went only correctly loosely: extreme headache, increasing paralysis in the arms and legs. “I couldn’t speak once more and was just laying still,” recalls Beat Röthlisberger. Since it was the weekend, and his doctor had no office hours, advised this the Röthlisbergers, the cantonal hospital Frauenfeld.
wife Margrit had another idea: One of your colleagues at the retirement home had also once because of a tick trick and treat – and advised her to go directly to the well-known tick-specialists and internists Norbert set in Zurich. The next day the Röthlisbergers had an appointment. After various neurological Tests and a spinal puncture with examination of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) was the diagnosis: inflammation of the brain, in the technical language of tick-borne encephalitis (TBE).
result of climate change?
This is the most feared disease transmitted by ticks. “When the first symptoms appear, it’s already too late,” says Hans Jakob Furrer, chief physician of infectious diseases at the Inselspital Bern. “There is no treatment against the pathogen. One can only hope that the disease course is benign, and try to relieve the discomfort.” In the best case, these go back, in the worst case they can even lead to death. The more important prevention, in particular vaccination. But it is also a protective clothing is helpful.
Although only about one to two percent of the ticks carry, in Germany, the dangerous TBE Virus. However, the Federal office of public health (BAG) last year, approximately 380 cases of tick-borne brain inflammation of the skin which is a new record. In 2016, it had been only half as many, and in 2012, just a quarter. The causes of this increase were “likely to be diverse”, as stated by the BAG. “They include both favorable climatic conditions for the ticks as well as the weather, the people are increasingly drawn into the open,” says spokesman Daniel Dauwalder.
Because of the striking rise of brain inflammation cases skin the BAG has expanded, this year the TBE-risk areas to almost the whole of Switzerland (except for the cantons of Ticino and Geneva). This also means that the vaccine is newly recommended for virtually all people living in Switzerland who and the health insurance paid. In view of this development, there is also good news: In most cases, a TBE-infection is relatively mild. That is similar to a flu, and the symptoms completely.
With Beat Röthlisberger unfortunately, that was not the case. He is one of around ten percent, with the possibility of a more severe course. After the diagnosis, he was once flat. Only thanks to wife, Margrit, who is well versed in things medical, he was able to stay at home. She nursed her husband for a week in a darkened room, and administered him a painkiller, and reported his condition daily for ticks doctor Norbert set. In addition to the constant headaches Beat Röthlisberger was also extremely light and sensitive to noise. “A bad time,” he says, looking back.
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after three months of him a little better. And after about a year he tried in his work to return to the point – first of all, only half a day. As a workshop Manager of a large car garage is not easy. Again and again his memory fails him: Once he forgets to pick up a car to capture another time a repair order. “I was able to concentrate only bad, was tired all the time.”
a Few years Röthlisberger fought for the Beat, supported by his work colleagues and his family, so still make ends meet. In 2009, he had to give up his profession and then was just 54 years of age. Since then, the disability insurance supported him with a pension.
in addition to the meningitis there is a second, usually less dangerous ticks disease: Lyme disease. In contrast to the TBE it is not transmitted by a Virus but by bacteria. These Borrelia are found in up to 50 percent of local ticks, so much more often than the TBE-Virus. Accordingly, more and more people of Lyme disease are affected: For the last year, the Federal office for the health around 16’000 cases. In contrast to the brain skin inflammation can be Lyme disease but at least with antibiotics to treat the tick vaccination does not protect against this bacterial disease.
For meningitis victims, Beat Röthlisberger is clear: “If you have the opportunity to be vaccinated, I’d do it today – 17 years ago, but that was no big issue.”
(editing Tamedia)
Created: 14.04.2019, 17:52 PM
