What is dangerous encephalitis tick. Chemical protection against tick bites
With the onset of warm weather, few people deprive themselves of the pleasure of going on a picnic to the nearest forest park or going with their family to the country. In nature, a person is relaxed and forgets that he found himself in the native element of numerous representatives of the world of fauna, who are not always friendly. If mosquito bites and the importunity of flies are completely harmless, then a meeting with ticks can end in failure. What are dangerous ticks for humans, and what consequences can be from the bite of these arachnids, is described in this article.
The danger of ixodid ticks
The tick is a synotropic organism, ubiquitous in forest and steppe areas. For some species of arachnids, the soil has become a native habitat, which at the same time serves as a source of nutrition, since the diet includes decay products of organic substances. Such mites are useful: they are active participants in soil-forming processes - decomposition and humification of dead biota. A person should be wary of ixodic arthropods, whose home is grass or piles of fallen leaves, and their favorite dish is blood.
A tick bite ceases to be a harmless injury to the skin if a lover of someone else's blood turns out to be a carrier of pathogenic microorganisms - viruses and bacteria. The danger of ticks lies in the risk of contracting serious viral infections - tick-borne encephalitis and borreliosis. All 79 constituent entities of the Russian Federation provided Rospotrebnadzor with data for the 2016 infectious season: the number of survivors of tick attacks and seeking medical help is about 31,500 people, of whom 9,200 are children.
Tick attack: behavioral features
Ticks prefer to live in humid environment, therefore, undergrowth, ravines, thickets of willows, the bank of a stream are the most likely places to meet them.
The bloodsucker's lack of vision is compensated by its excellent sense of smell plus the presence of tenacious limbs. The animal is able to smell the smell of the victim long before its appearance, therefore it is in full combat readiness mode when a person is close. A jump is enough to get on clothes or shoes. Further, the arachnid quickly climbs up, choosing the most vulnerable places where capillaries shine through the thin skin - the area of \u200b\u200bthe armpits, internal elbow and knee folds, the area behind the auricles, the inguinal region.
The threat is the bite of a mature individual, larvae and nymphs can not be feared.
VIDEO: This will save your life. 10 important facts about the life of ticks
The mechanism of infection with acute viral infections
The result of a tick attack is the risk of developing:
- tick paralysis;
- encephalitis;
- Lyme disease - borreliosis;
- tularemia;
- hemorrhagic fever;
- spirochetosis;
- rickettsiosis;
- typhus, typhoid.
It is the infection with tick-borne encephalitis that can cause disability or death. In addition to humans, the bloodsucker also feeds on animals, mainly forest rodents - natural reservoirs. terrible virus. After drinking infected blood, the tick becomes encephalitic.
The main task is to extract the arthropod unharmed: by depriving it of its head and leaving part of the body inside, the concentration of atogenic can be even higher, since the entire volume of the poison that the bloodsucker contains will enter the bloodstream.
Lack of confidence in the effectiveness of independent manipulations should be a reason to go to the nearest emergency room. Doctors are guaranteed to carry out the procedure correctly. Situations are different, people tend to relax far from the benefits of civilization, so a medical institution may not be nearby. Will have to make do on your own and hand tools.
How to remove a tick yourself
On sale you can find a special pincer. It costs from 100 to 300 rubles. and very convenient to use. The tick is hooked, as if with a fork, and gently twisted. In this case, it is impossible to crush or tear off the head.
Often, adults remove ticks on their own, not really worrying that it can be a source of the disease. What signs directly indicate contact with an infected synatrop:
- thickening of the skin, the formation of bumps;
- the appearance of a spot of intense red hue;
- temperature increase;
- enlarged lymph nodes;
- skin rashes.
A reddened bite area is normal, an alarming sign is an increase in the size of the spot, the appearance of new erythema. It makes no sense to immediately do an analysis that reveals encephalitis, borreliosis - no. A certain period of time must pass for microscopy to show the presence, absence of infection.
The month following the bite will be decisive, therefore it is important to monitor the condition of the victim's body, any changes in well-being are a reason to consult a doctor.
VIDEO: What to do and how to prevent an attack
Acute viral infections
Encephalitis is distinguished by a sharply manifested symptomatology and a rapidly progressive development of the pathological process.
Warning signs appear:
- temperature increase up to 40°С;
- sudden convulsions (most often at night);
- muscle spasms, paralysis of the limbs;
- severe migraine;
- nausea, vomiting.
strong headache due to infection along with the bloodstream in the brain cells. The patient experiences increased arousal, there is no sleep, space-time connections are gradually lost. The disease affects the central nervous system. The result of violations of the spinal cord, the brain can be partial or complete paralysis, loss of speech, impaired thought processes. The lack of timely medical care is the cause of a chronic sluggish form of the disease, a fatal outcome is possible.
Both diseases require immediate hospitalization, treatment is carried out under the vigilant supervision of physicians.
Features of infection: incubation period
In addition to the above symptoms, redness of the skin is a sure sign of developing Lyme disease. The presence of a slight erythema is normal, since an allergic reaction is a reasonable response of the immune system, which has identified a foreign protein as a threat to the body. The stain may last a couple of days. The cause of suppuration of the bite site is an insufficiently well-treated wound. The exact answer will be given by the doctor.
Terms of diagnosis of acute viral infections:
- A blood test by polymerase chain reaction (PCR), which reveals the presence / absence of tick-borne encephalitis virus, borreliosis, is carried out after 10 days.
- Conducting a blood test showing the presence / absence of antibodies to the causative agent of encephalitis is advisable after two weeks, antibodies to Borrelia burgdorferi - a month.
With negative test results for the indicated periods, you can finally calm down: the danger has passed.
Vaccinations: a panacea or a waste of money
Vaccination is real. effective method protect yourself from harm viral infection, but only if the scheme is followed. One injection is not enough to form a stable immunity. Two will be enough to protect yourself for only one season. And only with a triple application of the drug, a person for 3 years will be spared the risk of encephalitis.
Vaccination is recommended for those people who, by the nature of their activities, spend a lot of time in the forest or field, as well as ordinary citizens. Living near forest plantations. In regions with a high epidemiological threshold (Siberia, the Urals), vaccinations are recommended for everyone. In other cities and districts - on request.
Like most vaccines, the encephalitic tick vaccine is based on a dead virus that "starts" the human immune system in a safe mode to produce antibodies. When a live virus appears (with an insect bite), antibodies instantly block the threat.
With this schedule, protection is provided for 3 years, after which revaccination is necessary.
Lifelong immunity against the encephalitis mite cannot be acquired.
What vaccines are allowed for use
On the territory of the Russian Federation, the following drugs are certified and approved for use in agreement with a virologist or therapist:
- Encevir;
- Encepur;
- FSME Immun;
- purified vaccine against tick-borne encephalitis.
Knowing how ticks are dangerous for humans, it is equally important to understand how to protect yourself from the attack of a bloodsucker. Since it is easy to bring an arthropod home with you, and thereby creating comfortable conditions existence for several weeks ahead, it is important to carefully shake up all items of clothing, returning from the dacha or from the forest. Seams, pockets, pleats, decorative inserts require particularly careful examination. Additional laundry will eliminate the risk of being bitten in your own home.
You can avoid trouble by following simple rules. When planning a vacation outside the city you need:
When choosing a tick repellent, pay attention to its composition. One of the main ones should be diethyltoluamide, thanks to which insects do not even come close to a person, while for himself it is absolutely safe.
These drugs include:
- Off!;
- Extreme;
- Reftamid Maximum;
- Gardex extreme;
- Data.
For children over 3 years old, you can choose one of the following options:
- Off! Extreme;
- Mosquitol-anti-mite;
- Defi Taiga.
The drugs are not applied to the skin, but if the risk of damage is huge, you can treat the skin for a short time. After - be sure to rinse warm water with soap.
VIDEO: Why ticks are dangerous for humans
How wonderful it is when nature awakens, the first leaves bloom, the first flowers bloom, wild garlic, strawberries appear. And it's so wonderful to walk through the forest, enjoying fresh air, warm sunbeams, pick the first greens of fragrant wild garlic or wild strawberries - fresh vitamins. But with the awakening of nature, ticks awaken and also go for walks to get enough of fresh blood.
Who are ticks?
We have known since school that ticks are small arthropod arachnid creatures belonging to the animal kingdom. There are more than 48 thousand species of ticks on Earth. Some of them live in the forest and in the taiga, sucking the blood of small rodents and animals - hares, mice, and other inhabitants of forests and taiga. They are not averse to drinking human blood, and as soon as the summer season begins, summer residents and their pets, lovers of forest walks, tourists and people going on a picnic become victims of ticks.
Other types of mites live in the soil in our gardens and orchards. They cause great harm by sucking the juices from plants, destroying crops, for example spider mite, which also harms indoor plants.
There are also dust or bed mites that live in our homes. They live in sofas, in carpets, in pillows and in blankets. They are completely small size, they are impossible to notice, but they bring great harm, causing itching and red spots on the skin, as well as allergic reactions.
And there are also ticks - meadow, steppe, dog, scabies, eye, ear and others. But today we will turn our attention to ixodid ticks, typical carriers of encephalitis and borreliosis (and other equally dangerous diseases) are the taiga tick (also called the deer tick) and the European tick ( vernacular name- encephalitic mites).
Where do encephalitic mites live?
Ticks live in forest and taiga areas. They live under a layer of fallen leaves and grass and attack their victims by crawling from bushes, from leaves, from grass, as well as from the ground. But from the trees, as many believe, ticks do not jump off.
As soon as the sun begins to warm, and the earth is freed from snow cover, ticks go hunting. They attach their tenacious limbs to the leaves of plants, move closer to the paths along which a person moves, and wait for their prey. Ticks have a well-developed sense of smell, and they smell fresh blood. But ticks cannot see, because they have no eyes. But they are able to distinguish day from night. Once on a person or animal, ticks look for appropriate place on the body to suck. 
Ticks are especially active and aggressive in early spring, after hungry winter they need food. So you can pick up a taiga tick from April to June, and even in July, and a European tick is fierce from April to September.
What do mites look like?
The body of the tick consists of two sections - the body and the head. There is a hard shield on the back, and the male has it Brown and covers the entire back, while in the female only a third of the back is covered with a shield. The rest of the back is red-brown.
Ticks have four pairs of limbs, which consist of six segments. At the ends of these segments are claws with a sucker. With the help of suction cups and claws, the tick clings to plants, human clothing, and animal fur. Behind the fourth pair of legs, ticks have respiratory plates.
On the head of the tick is a proboscis, which has a complex structure and is adapted for suction and retention on the body of the victim. On the proboscis is a mouth with which the tick bites through the body and sucks blood. The saliva of the tick has an analgesic effect and the person does not feel the bite of the tick. The virus of encephalitis and other diseases enters the human blood with the saliva of the tick when the tick sucks blood. The tick itself does not suffer from encephalitis.
The female is larger than the male. It is believed that only females stick to the body and can suck blood for up to several days. The body of the female increases when she drinks blood, becomes ovoid and changes color to grey colour. Males only bite a person and are not able to suck blood for a long time. 
What diseases does the tick carry?
The number of people bitten by ticks is increasing every year. It is increasingly possible to pick up a tick not only in the forest, but also in summer cottages, in city parks and squares. Summer residents carry them on their clothes in trains, buses, in bouquets of flowers, with the harvest. From the clothes of people who visited the forests, ticks crawl onto passengers of public transport, and a person with horror discovers a bloodsucker that has stuck to his skin.
Of the diseases that ticks carry, the most famous tick-borne encephalitis, hemorrhagic fever and Lyme disease or borreliosis.
Symptoms of tick-borne encephalitis
Tick-borne encephalitis is transmitted by the bite of an encephalitic tick. Encephalitis is dangerous viral disease, which affects the central nervous system and the brain, can lead a person to disability and even death. 
There are the following forms of encephalitis: feverish, meningeal, meningoencephalitic, polio.
The first symptoms of the disease appear within 1-2 weeks after the tick is sucked, the disease begins with a sharp increase in body temperature to 39-40 degrees. The high temperature lasts for several days. At the first stage of the disease, the virus multiplies in the blood and intoxication of the body occurs.
All forms of the disease begin with a rise in body temperature to 38-40 degrees, are marked by fever, general malaise, headaches in the forehead, temples, neck, lethargy, weakness, lack of appetite, nausea.
In severe cases, cells of the brain and spinal cord are affected. A person has problems with the psyche, with vision and hearing, there is a violation of consciousness, numbness of the hands, convulsions, paralysis. The last two forms of tick-borne encephalitis lead to disability and death.
In febrile form headaches, nausea, weakness are noted, the temperature lasts for several days, then the fever stops and the person recovers.
With meningeal form encephalitis in humans, severe headaches, dizziness, photophobia and pain in the eyes, nausea and vomiting, lethargy are also noted. The fever lasts one to two weeks.
With meningoencephalitic form, hallucinations, loss of orientation in time and space are added to the symptoms characteristic of the meningeal form. A sick person may experience epileptic seizures, convulsions, and loss of consciousness is possible.
With poliomyelitis there is fatigue and severe weakness and pain in the neck, shoulders and arms, decreased skin sensitivity, twitching of the muscles of the arms, hanging of the head on the chest, a feeling of numbness in the tissues of the arms, legs, and muscle atrophy and paralysis of the limbs.
You can get encephalitis not only from a tick bite, but also by crushing a tick with your fingers. The danger of catching an infection is the raw milk of domestic goats, sheep, cows infected with a tick bite. Boiled milk is not dangerous.
You can watch a video about the effects of a tick bite.
Borreliosis or Lyme disease
Borreliosis is an infectious disease that, like encephalitis, is transmitted to humans through the bite of a tick. Lyme disease has early period(consists of two stages) and the late period (the third stage).
Symptoms of borreliosis
The disease begins with fever, chills, and headache. A person has fatigue, weakness and muscle aches. Many develop a cough, sore throat, runny nose, and some experience nausea and vomiting. On the skin where the tick has stuck, a red spot appears - migrating annular erythema, which appears on the 6th - 23rd day. The spot has the shape of a circle or oval and increases to a diameter of 10-20 cm, sometimes it can reach a larger size. The stain persists for 2-3 weeks, there is pain, severe itching. Depending on the treatment, the first stage can last from 3 to 30 days and will end with recovery. 
Without treatment, after 1-3 months, the causative agent of Borreliosis penetrates with blood into internal organs, in the human brain. Patients have severe throbbing headaches, dizziness, chest pain, shortness of breath. There is a defeat of the cardiovascular system, heart disease develops, pain in the heart is noted. Damage to the nervous musculoskeletal system. Patients may experience facial paralysis, serous meningitis, pain in the spine (cervical, thoracic, lumbar).
At the third stage (develops from six months to two years), joint pains appear (most often in knee joints), arthritis, polyarthritis, osteoporosis and other diseases develop. Skin lesions often occur.
Lyme disease varies from person to person: some have only the first stage, while others have the disease starting in the second or third stage. But if not treated, the disease becomes chronic and leads to disability. You can also get borreliosis from unboiled milk of domestic animals.
We offer to see small video Video about Lyme disease.
What should I do if bitten by a tick?
What to do if you find a tick stuck on your body? First of all, you need to seek help at the emergency room, where a tick will be removed from your body and there you will be given immunoglobulin against tick-borne encephalitis. If you are insured - free of charge, and if you do not have insurance, you will have to pay a tidy sum (the higher your body weight, the more you will have to pay for the vaccine).
How to pull out a tick?
If you are unable to seek help from medical institution, you can remove the tick yourself. Pull out the tick carefully so as not to damage it. You can pull it out with tweezers, picking up the tick with tweezers at the proboscis, closer to the skin where the tick stuck. It is not necessary to pull sharply, you need to carefully pull the tick, swinging it to the side and pulling it up. 
If tweezers are not at hand, you can use a strong thread. A loop of thread should be thrown closer to the proboscis of the tick, tighten and pull the thread up, swinging the tick from side to side.
After the tick is removed, smear the bite with iodine or alcohol.
The tick should be wrapped in a wet cotton swab or cloth and placed in a vial with a lid or a box. And take it to the sanitary and epidemiological station for examination for the presence of encephalitis, borreliosis and other diseases. The next day, you need to call the SES and find out the results of the tests. If a tick is infected with tick-borne encephalitis or Lyme disease, this does not mean that you have caught the infection. Not always the bite of an infected tick causes disease. You will simply be sent for examination to the clinic, where they will do a blood test. If viruses are found in the blood, you will be prescribed treatment.
If you do not want to take the tick to the SES, you need to destroy it, it is best to burn it. Remember to wash your hands and tweezers well.
If you do not want to seek medical help, monitor your condition carefully, and if you feel unwell or have symptoms of the diseases described above, do not postpone a visit to the clinic. Timely treatment will help you avoid terrible complications.
What to do if the tick broke off during self-extraction? You just need to gently pick it up with tweezers and pull it out. If the head or proboscis of the tick is deep in the wound, and you are afraid to pull it out, you can contact the clinic. Or you can simply lubricate the wound with iodine and after a while, the remnants of the tick parts will be on the surface of the skin along with the abscess and come out like a splinter.
It is believed that a sucking tick can be forced to crawl out of the skin by lubricating it with oil. But experts do not advise doing this, since the tick will suffocate from the oil and die, burping the contents of its stomach into the wound, and the infection will quickly enter the human body.
Tick bite prevention
Tick-borne encephalitis vaccinations
In order not to catch such a dangerous disease as tick-borne encephalitis after a tick bite, vaccinations are provided. The course consists of three vaccinations, immunity from tick-borne encephalitis lasts up to three years.
Proper clothing
If you are going to the forest or your cottage is adjacent to the forest, you must dress properly. Clothing should cover your body. Outerwear tuck into pants, and tuck pants into socks or boots, boots, jacket sleeves, sweaters, shirts - with buttoned and tight-fitting cuffs, put a hood or hat on your head. On the light clothes the tick is more noticeable, so it is advisable to wear light-colored clothing. 
Every 15-20 minutes, inspect your clothes, your fellow travelers, and if you find a tick, remove it, but do not press it with your hands, it is better to burn it with a lighter or a match. After the hike, carefully examine your entire body, Special attention apply to the auricles, armpits, groin, neck. Just carefully inspect your clothes and things that you took with you to the forest, to the country.
Chemical protection
Use chemicals to prevent tick bites. creams, aerosols that are sold in stores, in pharmacies are repellents (repel ticks), acaricidal agents (kill ticks), as well as insecticidal-repellent agents (repel and kill).
Treat clothes with chemicals - cuffs, collar, belts at trousers, as well as clothes around the ankles, knees, lower back, waist, open areas body - face, neck, hands.
The garden plot can be processed by special means that kill ticks.
Medical insurance against tick-borne encephalitis
Annually insure yourself and your children against tick bites. Price insurance policy not great from 200 to 250 rubles. If you are bitten by a tick, then health care free of charge (examination by a doctor, removal of a tick, administration of immunoglobulin, treatment in case of illness). Without an insurance policy, you will have to pay for all medical services and treatment.
Be careful when walking in the forest, working or relaxing on suburban area. Take care of yourself and take care of your health!
The problem of encephalitic ticks appears annually with the onset of spring, when they are the most dangerous, however, in summer and autumn there is a chance of getting a tick bite. Today I want to talk about where you can meet a tick, how to protect yourself from this insect and what to do if the tick is still bitten.
The main thing to remember is that ticks can be active until the onset of frost, so you should be careful throughout the warm season, especially protecting children from them.
What does a tick look like?
To protect yourself from being bitten by an encephalitis tick, you need to know what it looks like. The tick resembles a small spider, because it belongs to their order. It has a small size, only up to 5 mm, however, when it gets drunk with blood, it greatly increases in size, most often then it is framed. It is easiest to detect it in open areas of the body, because it forms a tubercle under the skin, the head most often remains sticking out, and it is the most dangerous to human health.
Why is a tick dangerous?
By itself, it is harmless, an ordinary insect, like a small spider, however, it carries a dangerous disease - encephalitis. It is possible to distinguish an ordinary tick from an encephalitic one only in the laboratory, so you should always consult a doctor if you are bitten by a tick.
Where does the tick live?
Most often it can be found in deciduous (birch) forests, or coniferous (pine) forests, however, even in meadows with tall grass and shrubs, there is a possibility of ticks. A lot depends on weather conditions and tick populations in each area.
Worst of all, the tick can now spread in the city park area, maybe even in a summer cottage.
How does a tick get on a person or animal?
The tick can be on a tree, on the ground or grass, where it will wait for the victim. In a jump, he can even fly several meters, and he feels the approach of a person or animal from afar.
When a tick hits a person, it tries to find a place to bite, that is, an open area of \u200b\u200bthe skin. Therefore, it is so important to walk into the forest in clothes tucked into shoes, in a headdress of this type, so that the tick could not sneak onto the skin unnoticed. It can also get into trousers, socks, bite on the back, chest, head, even on the genitals, which is the hardest thing to detect, therefore, the better you protect your body, the less likely it is to be bitten by a tick.
The main thing is not to let him bite you for three hours, after which his activity drops, and he will no longer bite you.
How does a tick bite happen?
The tick makes a very small hole in the skin, but large enough to inject painkillers into it, so you won't feel the bite itself. What is most terrible, if it all penetrates under the skin into the blood, then gradually over several days it can reach the heart, which will lead to lethal outcome. However, since most often it stays on the body for at least three days, it can be seen and pulled out.
Most often, the tick sticks for several days and drinks blood, after drinking, it will fall off.
What to do if you were bitten by a tick and you found it?
First, do not panic, not all ticks are carriers of encephalitis. Therefore, try to pull it out, if you can’t pull it out completely, consult a doctor. If you pulled out a tick, put it in a jar and immediately go to the doctor, they will do the necessary tests for you, they may prescribe drugs, the tick will be sent for examination for suspected encephalitis.
If you yourself pull out a tick, you can not leave even the slightest piece of it under the skin, very often the head comes off, this is extremely dangerous, and can lead to complex treatment. It is best to pull out the tick with curved tweezers, grabbing it, rotate it and gradually pull it towards you, without sudden movements.
If you manage to remove the tick, treat the bite with iodine, and let the extractor wash their hands thoroughly. If you don't want to get infected dangerous disease, you should consult a doctor in the first three days, when there is still a chance to prevent diseases. There are drugs - immunoglobulin, iodatripin, which are prescribed for prevention, their action after three to four days is already useless. In the first days, it is impossible to detect the disease by blood, therefore prophylactic treatment is prescribed. After 10 days, a blood test will be taken, which shows the presence or absence of the disease.
Do not self-medicate, be sure to consult a doctor. If an animal is bitten by a tick, see a veterinarian. This is a dangerous disease that should be treated under medical supervision.
How to dress so as not to be bitten by a tick?
If you go to the forest, in the field, then you should not walk with your head uncovered, and with open areas of the body. It is best to have a jacket or cuffs with elastic bands so that they fit snugly against the skin, you can tie a scarf around your neck. Wear a cap or hood over your head. On the feet - sneakers or closed shoes, it is better to tuck the legs into socks.
After the walk, inspect the clothes, shake them off, and examine your body.
I wish you pleasant walks in the forest and good health to your family!
We usually say about annoying people: “I grabbed it like a tick.” This is a very appropriate comparison, since getting rid of a tick is not at all easy. And it is important to remember that the tick is a carrier of dangerous diseases, its bite can lead to paralysis, deafness and even death.
Whether a tick is infected or not, it is impossible to determine on its own. How can you protect yourself from a tick bite?
The enemy must be known by sight.
There are more than 60,000 species of ticks, from the smallest 0.08 mm to the largest 3 cm long. Males are smaller than females, and they stick to human skin for a short time- no more than an hour. The female, on the other hand, can suck blood for many days, and when she is completely satiated, her weight increases by 80-120 times. Ticks do not have eyes, but they have a well-developed sense of touch and smell, which helps them to detect the scent of the victim from a distance of 10 meters.
When are ticks most dangerous to humans?
In early or mid-April, when the sun warms up, tick activity begins to appear. Their number gradually increases and reaches a peak by the second decade of May. And depending on the weather, the high risk of a tick bite continues until the end of June. Then the danger decreases, but single individuals may be active until the end of September.
Where can you find ticks?
Ticks love wet places, so they are most of all in moderately shaded forests, where there is dense grass and undergrowth. But they are also found on forest edges, in willow thickets, in ravines, on paths overgrown with grass, along the banks of streams.
How do ticks get on a person?
Many are mistaken in believing that ticks jump down on a person from trees. In fact, they cling to clothes from below, from small bushes or tall dry grass, and then crawl up. Therefore, a false impression is created that he fell from above. When the tick smells blood, it quickly jumps on its prey, spreading its front legs with special claws and suction cups, fixes itself on clothes with their help, and then makes its way to the food source.
Most often, ticks stick to the scalp, on the ears, in the neck and collarbones, underarms, on the chest and back, in the inguinal zone, and in children they can even on the eyelids.
Tick infestation.
A sucking tick secretes saliva into the wound. The first saliva, like glue, firmly glues his proboscis to the skin of a person. Saliva, which is released later, performs several functions: it anesthetizes the wound, destroys the surrounding tissues and the walls of blood vessels, suppresses the immune system of its victim, and spreads the infection through the blood.
Currently, medicine distinguishes five types of infections. The most common of them are tick-borne encephalitis and tick-borne borreliosis.
Tick protection.
If you live in a zone of increased danger of ticks, then you need to get vaccinated in advance, which in case of a bite will save you from unpleasant consequences.
When going out into nature, purchase a special repellent that repels ticks and treat your clothes with it. Apply it on the collar and cuffs, on the belt and on upper part socks - then the ticks will not penetrate under the clothes.
It is better to choose clothes in light colors, tightly fitting the body. The shirt is tucked into trousers and the trousers are tucked into boots. Tie a scarf around the head and neck.
Every 1.5-2 hours of outdoor recreation, conduct a self-examination and inspect each other. Arriving home, too, carefully inspect all clothes and body.
Follow these precautions so you don't go to a medical facility with a tick bite when the weather gets warmer.
How to pull out a tick?
It is necessary to carefully pull out the sucked tick so that its head does not remain in the human body. Grasping the tick with tweezers or fingers wrapped in a cloth, make slow, smooth movements.
If this method fails to remove the tick, then generously lubricate it vegetable oil or Vaseline and after 10-15 minutes try to pull it out again. There are times when the tick crawls out on its own.
The bite site must be treated - alcohol, iodine, cologne or brilliant green will do.
Wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water after all procedures.
The tick should be tested for infection with the encephalitis virus.
Within a month after the bite, you need to carefully monitor the wound and general well-being.
When to see a doctor after a tick bite?
If, when removing the tick, its head came off and remained in the wound.
With swelling and redness of the bite site.
When symptoms appear: heat, headache, fever, difficult neck and eye movements, photophobia.
At the end of April, when the snow completely melts and the sun begins to warm pleasantly, ticks appear in forests, gardens and parks. The activity of ticks continues until the onset of frost, and in some areas of our country, they can be found even at the end of October. They are especially dangerous during the period from the beginning of May to the middle of June, it is at this time that they are especially active. And, of course, during these months, when going to the country house, to the forest and just walking in the parks, you need to be especially careful. Namely, from May to June, the month is recorded, the largest number victims of tick bites. I think that it will be useful for every person to know what a tick looks like, what protection against ticks is most effective, and what to do if a tick bites.
What does a tick look like?
Ticks belong to the order of arachnids, and in appearance resemble small spiders, from 2 to 4 millimeters long. After the tick is pumped with blood, it greatly increases in size and becomes clearly visible, forming a tubercle under the skin. By themselves, ticks are not dangerous, but they are carriers of tick-borne encephalitis.
In the best way, for their life, deciduous and coniferous forests, thickets of shrubs, glades and meadows densely overgrown with tall grass, river banks and sunny mountain slopes are suitable.
Many people are interested in the question of what it looks like Tick-borne Encephalitis? He is no different from the usual, except that he is a carrier dangerous virus. And you can find out about this only by examining it in the laboratory.
How does a tick get on a person?
Nowadays, a tick can be found not only in the forest, but also in your summer cottage, in a city park or in a public garden. In most cases, they wait for their prey on the ground or tall grass. Sometimes, a tick, sensing the approach of a person, can jump from a tree branch and fly several meters to reach the target. And this behavior is not uncommon. He firmly clings to a person passing by, and is looking for a place to bite. Searching for a good place can take more than 3 hours. If, during this time, you manage to detect it, then the bite, which lurks a potential danger, can be avoided.
Having chosen a place for a bite, and having bitten through the skin, the tick digs into the wound. During a bite, a special anesthetic substance is released, so you are unlikely to feel it. On the human body, it can stay for several days, after which, having drunk blood, it falls off.
What should I do if bitten by a tick?
If you are bitten by a tick, you need to see a doctor or carefully remove it yourself. In any case, don't panic. It should be remembered that not every one of them is a carrier of encephalitis. And even if you are bitten by an encephalitic tick, there is a chance not to get infected with this disease.
At the site of the bite, redness and swelling may form.
Now, in many pharmacies, you can buy a special hook for removing ticks. If you do not have the opportunity to get to the pharmacy, then you can use improvised means. Make a loop out of the thread, and grab the tick with it, as close to the skin as possible. Pull it out with slow, rocking motions.
After that, wash your hands thoroughly, and treat the bite site with iodine, or another antiseptic.
Do not drip oil on the tick, it will cut off the oxygen supply and kill it, and thereby increase the risk of infection.
Donating blood for analysis earlier than 10 days after the bite does not make sense.
After removing the tick, for the prevention of encephalitis, adults are prescribed iodantipyrin, and children under 14 years of age are given seroprophylaxis with immunoglobulin. This help should be provided free of charge! Remember that when taking Jodantipyrin, the prevention of the disease is effective only in the first four days, and when taking immunoglobulin, only the first 3 days after the bite. The use of these drugs is solely for the prevention of encephalitis, and their use does not protect you from other infections.
Only a doctor can prescribe these drugs, therefore, you do not need to self-medicate - this can be harmful to your health.
What protection against ticks is truly effective?
The best protection against ticks is the right clothing. Shoes should be closed, boots or sneakers are suitable, although the latter is not the most the best way. If there are no cuffs on the bottom of the pants, then it would be better to tuck the legs into socks. In this case, even if the tick manages to catch on to the clothes, then in some way it will not be able to get to the body, and having noticed it, it will be easy to shake it off. It is better if there are cuffs on the sleeves of the jacket, and on the head, you need to wear a hood. This form of clothing is the most reliable protection from ticks. When choosing clothes, you should give preference light shades. On light-colored clothes, it is not difficult to notice a tick.
For those who consider such protection against ticks to be insufficient, it can be advised to purchase a special cream at the pharmacy. The cream is applied to exposed areas of the skin and repels ticks, mosquitoes and midges. Also, in a pharmacy, you can purchase a drug based on permethrin, upon contact with which, the tick dies in a few minutes, but only clothes can be treated with this substance, and in no case should it be allowed to come into contact with the skin. This substance works for a long period of time, and within a week, protection against ticks is provided to you.
After returning from a walk, you need to thoroughly shake off your clothes. It is advisable to take a shower, it will wash off the tick if it managed to get under the clothes, but did not have time to stick. After showering, take a close look at your entire body. Most often, the tick chooses the following places: the scalp, behind the ears, armpits, and groin - it is from these places that you need to start the inspection.
remember, that best defense from ticks - this is your caution!