The spread of ticks represents a serious problem in the States. These parasitic insects are capable of transmitting Lyme disease, babesiosis, relapsing fever. Rocky Mountain spotted fever, tularemia, ehrlichiosis, and more. Our pets can usually carry ticks and bring the insects to our houses.
But with today’s medicine, there’s a lot of hope. Pfizer’s new announcement reveals that the FDA approved the first vaccine that fights against tick-borne encephalitis for individuals over 1 year old who also visit or live in areas endemic to the illness.
TicoVac should prevent tick-borne encephalitis
TicoVac is the vaccine in question, and it was developed by Pfizer. The incredible thing is that TicoVac has been approved outside the USA even since 45 years ago. TicoVac works by mimicking the tick-borne encephalitis that’s found in nature. The drug will induce neutralizing antibodies.
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control describes tick-borne encephalitis as following:
Tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) is a human viral infectious disease involving the central nervous system, and occurring in many parts of Europe and Asia. The virus is transmitted by the bite of infected ticks, found in woodland habitats.
TBE is most often manifested as a two-phased illness. The first phase is associated with symptoms like fever, fatigue, headache, muscular ache and nausea. The second phase involves the neurological system with symptoms of meningitis (inflammation of the membrane that surrounds the brain and spinal cord) and/or encephalitis (inflammation of the brain).
The TicoVac vaccine is marketed in Europe under the moniker FSME-Immun.
Luckily, there are plenty of ways to get rid of ticks. Last month, entomologists revealed five good ways of doing so, and you should consider trying them out. They’re completely unexpensive, and pretty much anyone can give them a try.
