June 20, 2018.
In its latest Weekly Epidemiological Bulletin (BEH), the national public health agency France reveals that many French people have already been bitten by a tick. We tell you everything.
Lyme disease is increasingly well known
According to the national agency for Public Health France, the number of people affected by Lyme disease continues to increase. We were counting 84 cases per 100,000 inhabitants in 2016, against only 55 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2009. But these figures can be explained in large part by knowledge of the subject which is becoming precise. We are talking more and more about this disease.
As a reminder, Lyme disease is transmitted by the Borrelia bacteria after a tick bite which is itself contaminated. We discover new symptoms of this disease every year and we now know that the earlier we diagnose it, the lower the risks. In 2016, 1 in 4 French people claimed to have been bitten by a tick and two-thirds of them had heard of the disease before, according to the BEH.
819 cases of people affected by Lyme disease in 7 years
Of those people who have heard of Lyme disease, 65% say the first sign of Lyme disease is a red patch on the skin. Over the period observed by the Public Health France agency, 819 cases were formally identified as having developed Lyme disease. These diagnoses were most often made between March and October, with a peak in July.
In most cases, patients who have developed this disease have observed this red plaque at the site of the bite. This plaque is called erythema migrans because very often this plaque grows and moves over the skin. There are disparities according to the regions of France. We learn in particular that with 617 cases per 100,000 inhabitants in 2016, Limousin was the region most affected by the disease.
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