2023-07-25 16:02:00
The effects of global warming are being felt almost everywhere in Europe at the moment, such as in Switzerland where a tornado hit La Chaux-de-Fonds or in Greece, where firefighters are fighting forest fires.
But another effect of climate change might have health consequences here in Belgium. Thus, as our colleagues from Sudinfo report, ticks are proliferating throughout Europe, and of course in Belgium. This in particular because they now resist the winter, which is less cold, and survive whereas they usually die during this season. They carry with them their share of diseases, hitherto extremely rare in our regions.
Tick-borne encephalitis, this potentially fatal disease caused by a bite: “There is no specific treatment”
If these little beasts are well known to be carriers of Lyme disease, a bacterium that is transmitted to humans by a tick bite, a new disease is spreading on the European continent.
This is tick-borne encephalitis, or TBE, a disease that can attack the brain system and cause irreversible damage. “Little by little, it is spreading north, to regions where it was not present”, points out infectiologist Yves Van Laethem to Sudinfo.
This pathology is still very rare in Belgium but is coming to our doorstep. Many cases have been identified in the north-east of France and not far from the border with our country.
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