Take advantage of sunny days while protecting yourself from ticks

With the return of warm weather comes warmer rays and wildflowers… but also ticks that carry Lyme disease. It is also in the coming weeks that we will have to be most wary of these nasty critters.

“Ticks start moving very early. They are most active in the spring and early summer, says Jade Savage, a biology professor at Bishop’s University. They don’t like extreme heat and drought. That’s why it’s quieter during the very hot, very dry summer months. It starts again in the fall. »

You have to be particularly vigilant in the spring because there are then a lot of ticks in the nymph stage, an intermediate stage between the larva and the adult tick. “The nymph is much smaller than the adult tick. So small that it is possible that it has been attached for 24 hours and that we have missed it”, underlines M^me Savage.

The risk of transmission of the bacterium responsible for Lyme disease occurs mainly after 24 hours of attachment.

The big culprit is the blacklegged tick. In recent years, its territory has been expanding. Initially limited to the United States, it progressed towards Estrie and Montérégie. We now find them further north, as far as Quebec.

Appropriate clothing

The good side is that people are more aware, more vigilant. More of them are adopting protective measures, observes the professor.

It is therefore a question of wearing long sleeves and of entering the bottom of the trousers in the socks. It’s obviously less tempting in the middle of summer, when it’s hot. Repellents such as 20% DEET or icaridin can then be used.

“DEET being potentially neurotoxic, it is not recommended for children, indicates the D^D Mirabelle Kelly, microbiologist and infectiologist at the CIUSSS de l’Estrie. The Canadian Pediatric Association recommends 10% icaridin instead. »

There are clothes impregnated with a repellent, permethrin, which are also effective.

“The important thing is above all to watch yourself after an activity and to take a shower so that the tick, if it is not yet attached, falls with the water”, indicates the D^D Kelly.

For many years, doctors have prescribed antibiotics, such as doxycycline and amoxicillin, to treat Lyme disease once it has set in.

“What’s different is that for about five years, we’ve had secondary prophylaxis, we’ve used doxycycline for prevention following a bite,” says Dr.^D Kelly. There are four criteria to meet: the head must have been attached for more than 24 hours, there must be relatively credible proof that it was indeed a tick, the treatment must be sought within three days of the removal of the tick and that we are in a region where the prevalence of the disease is sufficient to justify the use of prevention. »

Vaccine in sight

There is another new element: Pfizer and Valneva have undertaken clinical trials on a new Lyme disease vaccine to test its effectiveness and safety.

“A vaccine had been put on the market in the years 1980-1990, Lymerix, notes the D^D Kelly. In the early 2000s, there was a class action lawsuit organized by vaccinated patients who had joint pain. The studies have not shown that it was necessarily the vaccine that was responsible: there were no more cases of joint pain in the vaccinated than in the non-vaccinated. But it hurt the marketing of the vaccine. The company just decided to drop the marketing. »

Quebec could participate in studies on the new vaccine. “We have been approached to participate, but we are still in the process of approval, indicates the D^D Kelly. If it works, we would start studying this summer in Granby, Sherbrooke and Montreal. »

While waiting for this vaccine, people should learn how to identify and remove ticks correctly. “It has to become a collective ability, to remove a tick, without having to ask a health professional. »