The Guéret Social Security Business Court (Creuse) recognized on Wednesday the Lyme disease of Eric Oden, forest technician at the Federation of Hunting in Creuse, as an occupational pathology.
After several months of procedure, thehe Guéret (Creuse) Social Security Business Court recognized Eric Oden’s Lyme disease as an occupational pathology. A first in France. The agricultural social mutuality (MSA), which had refused his claim for compensation, was ordered by the court to pay him 1,200 euros.
This forest technician at the Creuse hunting federation has been suffering from Lyme disease for 4 years, in particular because his job requires him to be in regular contact with animals carrying ticks. “The symptoms are multiple: joint pain, tremors and neurological disorders – loss of memory, depressive state”, he explains to France 3 Nouvelle-Aquitaine. According to him, this court decision shows “that the chronic disease exists. We must evolve on the care in France. It is becoming catastrophic,” he believes.
Achieved #sickness of #Lyme, a Creusois recognized as having an occupational disease by the #justice. #Dig #job ?https://t.co/3QG4jfuJMP pic.twitter.com/gZaVosTnmY
– France 3 Limousin (@ F3Limousin) April 25, 2018
What is Lyme disease?
Lyme disease is a disease of infectious origin secondary to the transmission of bacteria during a tick bite and whose diagnosis is sometimes difficult. Diffuse chronic and disabling pain may persist but their cause is not unequivocal. An infection manifests itself after 7 to 14 days as a reaction of the skin around the bite.
The lesion of the skin can be accompanied by muscle and joint pain, fever … If not treated, this acute infection can become chronic and spread throughout the body. It will then cause serious complications which can affect several organs (joints, brain, heart, etc.). The Lyme disease bacterium is a spirochete that is carried by many species of wild animals, such as wild boars, deer, small rodents, but also cattle.
The Grand Est, the most affected region
Each year, Lyme disease causes nearly 2,200 cases in Alsace, revealed the study “Alsa (ce) tique” published Thursday March 29 by theGrand-Est Regional Health Agency. According to this study, which was carried out by the Public Health France agency over the period 2014-2015, the number of new people affected by the disease is estimated at 117 cases per 100,000 people in Haut-Rhin and Bas- Rhine, i.e. an incidence more than twice the French average (51 cases / 100,000 inhabitants in 2015).
While the survey does not take into account the cases identified in Lorraine, other calculation methods carried out by the Sentinelles network estimate the average annual incidence rate of the disease in 2016 at 332 cases per 100,000 inhabitants in Lorraine. In 2015, ARS Grand-Est launched an awareness campaign to encourage residents to be extra vigilant, in particular by posting information panels at the entrance to forests.
Doctors have also been made aware of the diagnosis and treatment of Lyme disease. The Nancy CHRU and the Strasbourg University Hospitals also offer specialist consultations on Lyme disease, which are carried out at the request of the attending physician.
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