(Adnkronos) - “Sono molte le malattie che possono essere trasmesse dalle zecche. Nel nostro Paese sono sostanzialmente 3: la febbre bottonosa del Mediterraneo, l'encefalite trasmessa da zecche e la malattia di Lyme, o Borreliosi di Lyme. Si possono prevenire, ma la prevenzione può essere di diverso tipo”. Lo ha detto Spinello Antinori, professore ordinario di Malattie Infettive, Università degli Studi di Milano e Direttore Uoc Malattie infettive, ospedale Luigi Sacco del capoluogo lombardo, in occasione del talk promosso da Adnkronos in collaborazione con Msd Animal Health dal titolo ‘One Health: come e perché proteggere noi e i nostri pet per tutto l’anno’.
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00:00Of course, there are many diseases that can be transmitted by ticks.
00:09I would focus on the pathologies that we see in Italy,
00:13so that are present in our country.
00:15Basically, three, I would say, the main ones,
00:18which are the botanical fever of the Mediterranean,
00:22which is a disease caused by a microorganism that is a bacterium,
00:29the encephalitis transmitted by ticks,
00:32which is a pathology in which the zoological agent is a virus,
00:37and Lyme disease, or as it is more commonly called today,
00:43Lyme borreliosis.
00:45In this case, it is always a bacterium
00:49that belongs to this family called borreliae.
00:54They can be prevented, but the prevention can be of different types.
00:58The first possible prevention is not to be bitten or bitten by ticks,
01:04and this, unfortunately, is not so simple,
01:07and this also applies to other pathologies.
01:09Unfortunately, the pathologies transmitted by ticks
01:12fall into that category that we call vector transmission pathology,
01:18in which there is a vector, in this case the tick,
01:21a natural tank that can be represented by some animals,
01:25even domestic animals, the dog for example,
01:30and then the man who can represent, let's say,
01:34the one who is infected, as well as some animals.
01:38Other pathologies transmitted by ticks are very common,
01:41sorry, transmitted by mosquitoes, for example, are very common,
01:44and we can say that you should not be bitten by mosquitoes,
01:48but it is easy to say, much more difficult to put into practice.
01:52After that, what can we do?
01:55When we look, for example, in the wooded areas,
01:58where at least two of the pathologies I mentioned earlier
02:03can be present and transmitted by ticks that live in the woods,
02:07having clothing that allows us to keep
02:12as much cover as possible on all parts of the body.
02:15Unfortunately, this does not always happen, especially in the summer,
02:19when we go for walks in the woods, we go for mushrooms,
02:24often we have clothing that is certainly incongruous.
02:28And the third thing is, when we come back from our walk,
02:34we should undress completely and have another person
02:39inspect us from head to toe to see if ticks are present.
02:45Unfortunately, ticks can be very small and can escape our inspection,
02:52and sometimes we notice them when they have been attached,
02:57they have made their hematoma for a long time,
03:00so they have thickened and are full of blood.
03:02It is not always like that.
03:04The third thing we can say is that one of these pathologies has a vaccine available,
03:09so the encephalitis transmitted by ticks has an effective vaccine
03:15made up of an inactivated virus,
03:17so a vaccine that can also be given to immunodepressed people,
03:22that can also be given during pregnancy,
03:25and that protects against the serious manifestations of this disease
03:29that affect the central nervous system.
03:32For Lyme borreliosis, it is possible,
03:35if there is a situation in which we know
03:39a high prevalence of the infection in the ticks of that geographic area,
03:43once the tick has been removed, and this should happen as soon as possible,
03:47an antibiotic can be supplied that prevents the appearance of the disease.