Gennady Onishchenko: Russia may expect summer encephalitis

Ticks have attacked Russia. This is the opinion of the chief state sanitary doctor Gennady Onishchenko. According to him, in 2013, tick bites were recorded in 78 regions of Russia, in contrast to 64 a year earlier, "and the summer has not begun yet.""The spread of infected ticks (with the concentration of virus in the parasite) for today is 5.8%. So the proportion of ticks - carriers of the encephalitis virus - is at a high level," Gennady Onishchenko said, adding that Russians should solve the problem themselves by hiring private or public companies.According to him, 11% less were vacinated compared to 2012. The Moscow region is among the regions where the tick bites were reported. "There was a time when for 20 years there were no ticks, neither in Moscow,  nor the Moscow region. What measures should be taken? We're first of all talking about the children's holidays. Of course, vaccinating children against tick-borne encephalitis, and then sending them on holidays is not an ideal solution," the chief sanitary doctor of Russia said.He explained that the department is trying to achieve absolute elimination of ticks in summer camps: "We create a territory, a demarcation line, and places where the campers go hiking, e.g. the edge of the forest. A comprehensive tick treatment is carried out there several times during the season. If you have a garden association, you can hire a special service - now private businesses and government agencies are engaged - and undertake such a processing of the territory. This must be done carefully.Onishchenko drew particular attention to clothes. "Walking through the taiga, or the Moscow forest in shorts - I would not recommend it. You need to wear clothes that cover the body as much as possible. If you see this tick, do not tear it apart. A drop of vegetable oil - it will start to choke and he is gone, but be sure to check if it is infected or not. No need to bring the situation to encephalitis or Lime disease," Gennady Onishchenko concluded.