This text is a translation of an article from CTV News
Deer ticks (or blacklegged ticks) have been detected on the island of Montreal, in the Eastern Townships and near certain cities such as Quebec, Trois-Rivières and Gatineau.
Adapting to climate change, ticks and the animals that carry them are expected to spread further north, east and west.
Thanks to climate projections, the Public Health Institute of Quebec predicts that by the end of the decade, disease-carrying ticks will spread throughout the Outaouais. By 2050, they will spread throughout southern Quebec, and by 2080, only a few pockets of the province will be tick-free.
See the interactive map here.
The University of Sherbrooke (UdS) inaugurated Tuesday a Research Chair dedicated to Lyme disease and other emerging infections transmitted by several species of pathogen-carrying tickswhile their presence is only increasing.
Researchers will thus focus on two main projects for five years. In addition to training the next generation of scientists, they will organize various popularization activities for the population.
As part of their research, they will be able to follow a group of patients bitten by ticks and see if they develop Lyme disease or other infections linked to the bite. This will also make it possible to identify, in real time, the emergence of new pathogens transmitted by ticks and to find different means of prevention against these infections, such as vaccines for example. Note that patient recruitment has not yet started and will be done via the platform eTick.
Also, researchers will conduct a study to assess knowledge and training needs, depending on the diagnosis and management of Lyme disease by three categories of health professionals, namely doctors, pharmacists and nurse practitioners. specialized.
With information from Fanny Lachance-Paquette and the collaboration of Audrey Bonaque for Noovo Info.
