Attention for Lyme prevention:Educational tools to prevent tick bites and Lyme borreliosis

Lyme borreliosis (LB) is the most reported tick-borne disease in Europe and North America. Currently, there are no effective measures to control tick populations in the natural environment, nor are there any vaccines available. Therefore, we must rely on health education to prevent tick bites and LB. Studies have been conducted into the knowledge, attitudes and behaviour of adults and school children regarding the prevention of tick bites and LB in the Netherlands. Based on the study results, Beaujean gives the following advice: health education should focus on checking and removing ticks, as it is shown that people prefer performing these actions to wearing protective clothes. Health education should focus not only on adults but also on children. The message should be repeated constantly and communicated via as many types of media as possible. None of the different types of media studied (leaflet, film, serious game and mobile phone app) showed a long-term effect. Finally, unlike current practice, it is recommended to use stories from patients with Lyme disease. The study results show that people are more willing to take measures when they know someone who suffers from Lyme disease