Caution, ticks: what to do if you find a tick on the body

It has become warmer in Ukraine, and ticks have come out to hunt. They show maximum activity at a temperature of 10 to 20 degrees.

The saliva of the tick contains a powerful analgesic substance, so the bite of this parasite is painless. Often people discover it after they have returned from a walk, and one can only guess how long it has been sticking to the body of its victim. Meanwhile, the diseases that ticks can carry are very unpleasant and even life-threatening. And the longer the tick is on the body, the more saliva enters the bloodstream and the higher the risk of infection.

Ticks are very small, and it is difficult to notice them in time / istockphoto.com

Where can you find ticks

Without delving far into biology, we still note: a tick is not an insect, but an arachnid creature. Several varieties of these parasites live in Ukraine, but in relation to the transfer of diseases, ixodid forest and meadow ticks are dangerous. Therefore, do not be mistaken that a tick can only bite you in a forest or in a forested area. They feel great in the grass and bushes, attacking the victim, as a rule, at a height of 40-50 cm from the ground. So you can meet this harmful relative of the spider in the yard, on the street, in the square - in general, anywhere where grass and shrubs grow.

You can meet ticks not only in the forest, but also in open glades / istockphoto.com

Remember that ticks do not fall from trees and do not know how to jump. From this point of view, dry coniferous forests are much safer for walking than glades overgrown with thick grass. hitting the body, mite does not stick immediately, but crawls for about 20-30 minutes in search of a place with more delicate skin. Therefore, try to inspect yourself and children immediately after walking in potentially dangerous areas. Pay attention to the smallest boogers: in a hungry state, the body length of the tick is no more than 3 mm, but after sucking and drinking blood, it can increase to 1.5 cm.

What diseases do ticks carry?

Ticks can be carriers of about 30 different diseases. One of the most dangerous for humans is Lyme borreliosis (Lyme disease or erythema migrans). This is the most common tick-borne infection in Ukraine.

Lyme disease is very insidious and can be mild at first. But if it is not determined in time and timely treatment is not provided to a person, after 2 months serious complications arise: lesions of the skin, central nervous system, and musculoskeletal system. Sometimes even to the point of disability.

Ticks can be carriers of such dangerous diseases as borreliosis and encephalitis / istockphoto.com

The second, without exaggeration, deadly disease is tick-borne encephalitis. The causative agent of this disease affects the human brain or spinal cord. The prognosis for recovery varies depending on the form of the disease.

In severe cases, it can come to paralysis and insufficiency of many organs. According to the statistics of past years, there are very few encephalitic ticks in Ukraine. During the year, infectious disease specialists record no more than 10 cases of infection with tick-borne encephalitis. However, the problem, as they say, is the place to be.

The list of other diseases transmitted by ticks includes anaplasmosis, ehrlichiosis, babesiosis (piroplasmosis), bartonellosis. These are also unpleasant infections that can create serious health problems and even lead to death. However, they tend to threaten people with weak immune systems.

What to do if you find a tick on the body

The most favorite places for ticks on the human body are places with delicate and thin skin, where blood vessels are closest. Therefore, when examining, start with the armpits, neck, skin behind the ears, groin. However, hungry ticks do not always crawl far and for a long time: they can “comfortably” stick on their hands - on the bend of the elbow from the inside, and also on the legs - on the back of the knee.

If you find a tick in these or other places, the most important thing is not to panic and start pulling or squeezing it. Extract the tick must be completely, without damaging the body and without tearing off the head.

You can remove the tick from the body yourself, but it is better if a specialist does it / istockphoto.com

When a tick is detected, doctors recommend acting according to the following algorithm:

• Estimate how long ago the tick could stick, and how quickly you can get to the nearest emergency room. Objectively, it is better if the parasite is removed by a specialist who knows how to do this and who has the tools for this. If the question is half an hour or an hour - immediately go to the doctor.
• If, according to your estimates, the tick has stuck to the body for a long time, you can remove it yourself. But here you need to be extremely careful: if you remove it incorrectly, there is a risk of tearing off the head of the tick, and it will remain in the skin, or you can squeeze its abdomen and squeeze the contents into the blood. Therefore, do not try to remove the tick with your hands, no matter how musical your fingers are. It is better to use a thread, tweezers or a calcined needle for this.

We remove the tick with a thread.

Tie the thread into a knot as close to the proboscis as possible. Twisting the ends of the thread in a circular motion, remove the tick by pulling it up and shaking it to the sides. Everything must be done smoothly and carefully, sudden movements are unacceptable here.

Removing the tick with tweezers

Grab the tick as close to the proboscis as possible. Gently rotate it around its axis in a convenient direction. Usually the tick comes out completely after 2-3 turns. Again, you can not make sudden movements, and even more so, try to pull the tick out of the body.

Removing a tick with a needle

Ignite the needle on an open fire and proceed as if removing a splinter. Try not to touch the body of the parasite. This method is not suitable for children and people with a low pain threshold, as sometimes you have to “pick up” a fairly large area.

It is very convenient to remove the tick with the help of special devices - the so-called pincers (tweezer or pliers removal kit). They are sold in many pharmacies and pet supplies, cost from 50 to 100 UAH, and can be very useful in the field.

After the tick is removed, treat the bite site with an antiseptic, iodine, or an alcohol-containing liquid. If suddenly you panicked, twitched and tore the tick off the body so that the proboscis remained in the skin - pull it out with a calcined pin or a game, like a splinter. Be sure to treat the resulting wound.

Do I need to take a tick for analysis

The tick extracted from the body must be submitted to the laboratory for analysis / istockphoto.com

It is necessary to hand over a tick for research. Only in this way will you be able to find out in a timely manner whether it has been infected with Borrelia, and whether you are at risk of contracting this infection. The fact is that emergency therapy to prevent Lyme disease is carried out no later than 72 hours after the bite. And in human blood, this disease can be detected using tests no earlier than after 20-25 days. You can conduct therapy "just in case" (by the way, this is a course of potent antibiotics), you can rely on luck, but it is better to take the tick to the laboratory and get the result the next day research.

Previously, a tick had to be delivered alive for research. Now laboratories use PCR analysis, for which a dead parasite is also suitable. The main thing is that it be as whole as possible - this increases the amount of material being studied and helps test systems to find the causative agent of borreliosis. If the tick turns out to be infected, go directly to the doctor with the results of the tests. He will prescribe a course of preventive treatment and take you under observation until the delivery of control tests.

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