You should check yourself over whenever you have spent any time outdoors. If you discover a tick, it should be removed as quickly as possible.
This can be done most easily using special tweezers or hooks for ticks (available from the pharmacy). Otherwise you can just use a normal pair of tweezers and pull the tick out slowly.1
Make sure that you in particular don’t crush small ticks when pulling them out1 as bacteria (e.g. Borrelia or Rickettsia bacteria) in the tick’s intestines could then get into the bite. Unlike with Borrelia, infection with the TBE virus takes place immediately after being bitten as the pathogens are found in the tick’s salivary glands.2
When a tick anchors itself in your skin, this doesn’t generally hurt, and you therefore often won’t notice. It should however be removed as quickly as possible because the risk of borreliosis increases the longer the tick sucks your blood.2
What should you do, if the tick’s proboscis („head“) remains in the skin when trying to remove it? You shouldn’t actually do anything as the head will drop off of its own accord after a few days. If the bite becomes inflamed, you should see your doctor.1
Die FSME-Impfung bietet ausschließlich Schutz vor der Frühsommermeningoenzephalitis (FSME)
Medieninhaber: Österreichischer Verband der Impfstoffhersteller
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