Monday 31 March 2014

The Canton of Zurich - in the midst of a Tick Attack!

On Saturday evening, after a lovely day out in the Swiss sunshine in Zurich visiting Zurichhorn park, we found we had brought back a rather disturbing visitor on the upper leg of my 7-year-old daughter. It looked like a tiny black dot behind which her skin had reddened furiously. Thank god her dad was there (I'm embarrassingly squeamish) as we slowly realised that this black dot was moving and he grabbed it with tweezers and pulled it out of her leg cleanly. Ugh.

So it was a meeting with our first Tick. Really nasty little creatures which can cause Lyme disease (which can affect the nervous system) and encephalitis (a form of meningitis) Worst of all it seems that the Canton of Zurich is in the centre of an endemic - see map here. So I am watching my daughter with bated breath, desperately hoping that we don't see any rashes or flu symptoms develop. And avoiding woods (and wild vegetation) until next Winter...

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