Question to the expert: How are ticks dangerous and how to protect against them
Text: Ksenia Akinshina
RESPONSES TO THE MAJORITY OF US QUESTIONS we used to search online. In the new series of materials we ask such questions: burning, unexpected or widespread - to professionals in various fields.
With a holiday weekend and sunny weather, trips to the cottage or to the forest begin - and it is worth remembering about safety. Everyone seemed to have heard about tick bites, but few people know exactly how they hit the skin, what is dangerous and what to do if a meeting with arachnid still occurred. We asked these questions to the expert.
Armen Shakaryan
infectious diseases physician, staff member of the Department of Infectious Diseases in Children, Pediatric Faculty N.I. Pirogov
The start of tick activity occurs in the spring, when the temperature rises to five to seven degrees, and this activity reaches its peak, at least in the Moscow and Moscow region, around May holidays, just when people start to go out into the countryside. The second peak of tick activity is associated with the appearance of their offspring and falls in August-September - another favorite period of summer residents and mushroom pickers.
In general, ticks feed on plant food, but for some phases of the life cycle they need the blood of a mammal, such as humans. Awakening hungry after the winter, they go hunting. Most often, mites climb onto grass or low bushes, where they can sit for a long time, waiting for the victim to pass by. Ticks do not know how to jump, run and fly, they can only crawl, which means that a tick cannot fly from a tree. They choose grass that grows along paths or paths. When an animal or person passes by, the tick clings to clothing or wool and crawls. Then he chooses a place on the body with a close location of capillaries and sticks. Tick saliva contains a substance with an anesthetic (anesthetic) effect, and it is impossible to feel the moment of suction. That is why ticks are usually found either crawling on clothing or skin, or already adhering to a person or animal.
Ticks can carry several dozen pathogens of infectious diseases. Most of them are fairly well distributed geographically. For the central part of Russia, tick-borne borreliosis, or Lyme disease, tick-borne encephalitis, human granulocytic anaplasmosis, and monocytic ehrlichiosis are most relevant. Tick-borne rickettsioses are less common in the middle lane. These are dangerous infections that can affect the nervous system, including the brain, or be systemic, affecting the state of the whole organism. Without treatment, they are deadly.
The risk of tick-borne infections includes, first of all, those who like to be in nature - it does not matter how far this zone is from the city. It is now known that ticks are common in cities - for example, in parks, squares and in city cemeteries. Children are a particular risk group. Because of their age, they are more mobile, wear more open clothes and may disregard safety rules or simply do not know about them.
Prevention of tick-borne infections includes several components. A specific preventive measure, that is, a vaccine, is designed only for tick-borne encephalitis. It is not spread all over Russia, and, for example, Moscow is not an endemic zone now - but a vaccination course is recommended for residents of the capital who plan to leave the city, go hiking or pick mushrooms or berries.
Contrary to popular opinion, it is also absolutely impossible to smear an insect with oil: if you fill the respiratory opening of the tick, it can spill out all the harmful substances from the digestive system
For other infections, a simple rule applies: you need to make it as difficult as possible for mites to hit the skin. This requires clothes that close the body well: in particular, pants and a jacket instead of shorts with a t-shirt. To make it difficult for the tongs, in the forest it is worth dressing the pants with socks or shoes, and sleeve cuffs should be tightened. Clothing is better to choose light or bright colors - you can quickly find a tick on it (besides, it is important not to get lost in the forest).
Parts of the body that cannot be covered with clothing should be treated with repellents that repel ticks and insects — in fact, you can also spray clothes. A tick spends from twenty minutes to an hour to find a place to suck, so you should look at yourself and each other at such intervals of time - this will allow you to detect the tick before it sucks.
If the tick does dig into the skin, the main thing is not to panic; you have time for a balanced decision, but you should not linger in the forest either. It is necessary as soon as possible to ask for medical help in the emergency room. In no case should you try to damage an insect - burn it or crush it; it is not necessary to treat the place with any coloring antiseptics like brilliant green - this will complicate the work of the doctor. If the emergency room is far away, you can try to hook the tick with a tool or a loop of thick thread, swaying gently, and pull it out of the skin; pharmacies also sell special removal tools. Contrary to popular opinion, it is also categorically impossible to smear an insect with oil: if you fill the respiratory opening of the tick, it can throw all the harmful substances out of the digestive system - directly into a person.
But even if it was possible to pull out the tick independently, regardless of its integrity, it should be saved for laboratory research - and this study is preferably carried out within two to three days. If everything happened on the territory endemic for tick-borne encephalitis, and you are not vaccinated, you must contact the emergency room for three days to prevent this infection. The current list of Russian endemic areas can be clarified on the website of Rospotrebnadzor; There are also maps of endemicity for Europe. Prevention of other infections is carried out on the basis of the results of a laboratory study of the tick, after consulting an infectious diseases specialist.
The place of suction after the removal of the tick also needs to be monitored - and it is imperative to consult a doctor if ring-shaped redness or swelling appears there. The dangerous symptoms of tick-borne infections can appear within one to one and a half weeks after sticking and include indisposition, fever, headache and skin rash. All this is an occasion to urgently seek medical help and not to self-medicate.
Photo: nechaevkon - stock.adobe.com, nuruddean - stock.adobe.com