The people are warned to be very careful when waking in the open air, especially in parks and woods, because ticks come out of hibernation with the warming of weather, IPN reports.
According to specialists of the Chisinau Public Health Center, the ticks typically live in scrubby and woody areas, parks and recreational areas, near ponds with abundant vegetation. They leap to warm blooded mammals to feed on their blood. Like many other bloodsucking parasites, ticks can spread diseases between their victims. On the territory of Moldova, ticks are the only ones that spread Lyme diseases or Lyme borreliosis.
In most of the cases, borreliosis has clinical signs similar to those of flu or other acute respiratory infections. The infected persons usually do not pay appropriate attention to the signs and the disease advances in a period, affecting the cardiovascular system, joints and others. The most common sign of infection is an expanding area of redness, known as erythema.
Tick bites can be prevented by utilizing topical sprays which repel ticks, and by wearing thick, heavy garments which fully cover the body, making it hard for ticks to latch on. Clothing and hair should be thoroughly shaken and brushed out after trips into the woods to remove tricks.
If the person is bitten by a tick, it is not recommended attempting to remove the tick by oneself. A doctor should be seen immediately by consulting later an infectionist specialist.
According to the Chisinau Public Health Center, 73 cases of Lyme disease were reported in the municipality in 2016, as opposed to 97 in 2015.
