The report 'Tick terror on the fells' (Gazette, August 23) is big on fear-generating speculation but is limited on actual proof.

While having every sympathy for the victim of the debilitating illness he suffered and wishing him a full and speedy recovery, the origin of the transmission of the tick-based viral disease is inconclusive.

Although it is not in dispute that the gentleman was diagnosed with a potentially fatal disease linked with ticks, the nationality of the offending tick is unclear.

We are told that the virus is 'assumed not to be present in Britain'. This being the case the tick is unlikely on a balance of probability test to be a local Cumbrian.

Read further and we are informed that the victim has in more recent times visited Africa and probably, too, his homeland of Hungary. The particular tick happens to be endemic in many parts of Europe.

It therefore requires a considerable leap of faith to accept the Lake District as the origin of this completely isolated experience. Indeed, the victim readily concedes that 'it's impossible' to say whether the virus was contracted here or abroad.

While this article performs a useful general information function with regard to basic advisory safety precautions to be taken with regard to ticks, the headline grabbing front page distorts the likely reality.

The general public should not be scared away from treading rural Lakeland.

Peter Hordijon

Mealbank