Russian health workers escalate their war against ticks

Russia’s Consumer Rights and Human Well Being watchdog has only 8,000 hectares (almost 20,000 acres) of land left to treat against ticks, from the 125,000 total hectares (309,000 acres) that it planned to process over the course of 2016, said the service’s press office. This year’s plan is more ambitious than those of previous years. Only 50,000 hectares (124,000 acres) of land were treated in 2010.

Each of Russia’s regions has centers carrying out research on ticks and the diseases that the insects spread, such as encephalitis and Lyme borreliosis. As of June 10, laboratories were testing over 250,000 individual ticks for diseases, all of whom had bitten Russian citizens.

The federal watchdog is working with the population on the prevention of tick-borne illnesses. Before the start of June, watchdog specialists participated in more than 800 broadcast media projects, including special appearances on television, and helped produce over 5,000 articles on the issue. Furthermore, new sanitary and epidemiological standards on the prevention of tick-borne infections have recently been approved.