It’s summer in Sweden. And that means, among many other, much more pleasant things, also this – ticks. Yes, ticks. Fästingar, as they’re called in Swedish.

Those nasty little creatures and the diseases they cause are no laughing matter. And if you are spending your summers in Sweden, sooner or later you, or your pets will be faced with a tick issue. And trust me, it’s not a small issue.

Every summer you will see people coming to their vårdcentraler with a bullseye rash pattern asking for treatment. And you’d be surprised that many of these people have no clue that this rash is a result of a tick bite. People know that tick bites are dangerous, and that Lyme disease (borrelia in Swedish), and Tick-borne encephalitis (TBE or fästingburen encefalit) are serious problems, yet at the same time, many people don’t take tick protection seriously.

A friend of mine just contracted Lyme disease. She went for a walk with her dog and came back with a tick. She was always very concerned with protecting her dog from ticks and when a day later she found a tick on her body, she simply asked her sambo to remove it and didn’t think anything of it. A few days later when she saw the rash, she still didn’t think anything of it. When her sambo finally dragged her to the clinic, the diagnosis took less than 1 second – Borrelia. Yep. Lyme disease.

She was prescribed antibiotics and told not to be so stupid next time. When you suspect a tick bite, you should seek help as soon as possible. The consequences of delaying it can be very serious.

Here is a webpage, written in very simple Swedish, about Borrelia, its symptoms and treatment.

And as it says on that page:

Om man har fått en större hudförändring på platsen efter ett tidigare fästingbett, eller misstänker att man har fått borrelia, ska man kontakta en vårdcentral.

So please, when you are out and about in the beautiful Swedish countryside, enjoying the beautiful Swedish nature, be sure to protect yourself and your pets from tick bites!