If tick-borne encephalitis remains a disease that is still underdeveloped in France, it is spreading more and more within France. Some seventy-one cases of infection with the virus have been reported since 2021 (thirty in 2021, thirty-six in 2022 and five in 2023), according to the first report from Public Health France (SPF), Friday July 7, relayed by TF1 . Nothing to worry too much about, this disease being, for the moment, marginal in France.
Tick-borne encephalitis can be caught in two ways: either by consuming raw milk or cheese, mainly from goat, sheep or cow (the rarest mode of transmission, according to the Institut Pasteur), or via a tick bite. The infection period therefore runs throughout the period of activity of the mite, from spring to autumn.
In contrast, SPF differentiates between three types of viruses. First there are the two most serious subtypes, causing severe neurological disorders with high mortality: the Oriental, present in the eastern regions of the former USSR, as well as the Siberian. The third subtype, the only one present in France, is the Westerner. The latter is much less serious and its evolution is “rather favorable”, explains the Institut Pasteur.
For the subtype present in France, the symptoms appear one to two weeks after the bite and present “either like the flu or like a benign meningeal syndrome”, continues the Institute, which specifies that the disease “is more severe in children than in adults. If 20% to 30% of people who have contracted the virus develop symptoms manifested by tremors, impaired vigilance or convulsions, no death has occurred in France.
No specific treatment exists and the vaccine is not recommended in France, for the moment. Only people traveling to high-risk areas can receive injections. SPF recommends, on the other hand, to “cover up, wearing long clothes that cover the arms and legs, a hat, and to tuck the bottom of the pants into the socks”, to “stay on the paths and avoid the brush, ferns and tall grass” or “use skin repellents”.
