Vaccinations for Black Forest

Officer999

Hi,

Me and my girlfriend are heading to the Black Forest in Germany in a few weeks, and she was told recently that we should get vaccinated for Tick-borne encephalitis (TBE). Apparently the Black Forest is a red area for this type of disease.

Has anyone ever been? Is a vaccination required?

donadoni

I have never been to the Black Forest but I am German and come from the Bavarian Forest- Danube area which is also a common place for this tick and marked as red.

I would say to you that it depends a bit on what you're planning to do. If you go "hardcore" hill walking ( ie. through heavy undergrowth, meadows with high grass etc.) or camping, than it would probably not be a bad idea to get vaccinated. If you would say you're "average travellers" the risk to get TBE is rather low and you should consider that this vaccination is not entirely risk free in itself.

As I said, I myself spent my entire childhood and early youth in such a red area and got bit by these ticks only once. I was never vaccinated and other than a red, itchy, somewhat painful area around the tick bite has not happened.
What I am trying to say is that even if you are unlucky enough to get bit by one of those ticks, it doesn't mean that TBE will break out.
What you definitely should do however, is to check each other frequently if one or more of those ticks are on your body every evening. Especially after spending time outside in rural areas. Sometimes they didn't go for the bite yet but are still crawling around on your skin.
Here is a pic of what that tick looks like:




Make sure that you wear insect repellent, long sleeved jumpers, long trousers and closed shoes when walking through high grass, heavy undergrowth etc.

If you decide to go for the vaccination you should go very soon. I think it has to be done at least twice. The second one two weeks after the first.
But if you're too late, it should not keep you from going there anyway imo. As said, I believe the risk to contract TBE on a trip is rather low.

Please know that I am not an expert on this, I am just telling you what my own experience is. So maybe it would be a good idea to ask your GP or someone else that is in the medical profession for advice.

Here is a link that may help

http://www.patient.co.uk/health/tick-borne-encephalitis-immunisation

miezekatze

I grew up not too far from there, but outside of the red area. There are still plenty of ticks where I'm from, but this kind of disease wouldn't be as common. Anyway, I went on a 2 week holiday camp in the black forest in my early teens and everyone going on the trip had to be vaccinated. It was 3 vaccinations in total, but that may be different now. There were lots of outdoor activities and nobody got bitten by any ticks. I was bitten by ticks twice in my life besides that, both times it was fine - most ticks aren't dangerous. My dad must have had about 20 tick bites throughout his life. I do know of a handful of people that ended up with horrible diseases after being bitten by a tick though, so it does happen. Like donadoni said, if you want to get vaccinated, you'll want to do this soon.. it really depends on what kind of holiday you're planning.

donadoni

I think it's still 3 vaccinations for full protection lasting for something like 10 years (i.e. if you live in a red area)

If you're only going for a trip to a red area a "quick" vaccination (only twice) apparently does the job to protect you at least for a couple of month. That's what I read about it somewhere some time ago.

duckysauce

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