Recently, there have been many incidents of injury or even death caused by tick bites in China. So, what exactly is a tick? Where are ticks dormant? Zhao Yi, director of dermatology at Chang Gung Memorial Hospital in Tsinghua, Tsinghua University, and Andy Lau, a physician, explained the correct and effective methods for treating and preventing tick bites.
Zhao Yi said that being bitten by mosquitoes seems to be a problem that everyone will encounter in summer. Compared with mosquitoes, ticks have no wings, can’t fly, crawl slowly and don’t take the initiative to bite people, but they can also spread many diseases, ranking second only to mosquitoes in the list of disease vectors. Many people have no discomfort after the tick bite, which is difficult to be found. Many people have tick-borne diseases and can’t remember when they were bitten by ticks. A small number of people have severe allergic reactions after being bitten by ticks, but they often don’t suspect that it is caused by ticks.
Tick bites mostly occur in grasslands, bushes, forests and other places. After the bite, you will obviously see "black beans" like moles on the skin surface, which may still move and hurt when touched. Basically, it can be confirmed as a tick bite, and it needs to be treated in the hospital as soon as possible. If it is handled in time, it will not be a big problem.
What is a tick?
Acari, commonly known as creeper, belongs to Acari, Tick Superidea. It is also divided into Ixodidae, Ixodidae and Naxodidae. There are 104 species of Ixodidae and 13 species of Ixodidae recorded in China. Ticks often lodge in the fur of animals such as livestock, while in the wild, ticks mostly lie dormant in grass, plants or mountain soil in shallow hills. Acari is a crimson bug that looks like a spider. Ticks are smaller when they don’t suck blood, such as the size of a small grain of rice. After sucking blood, they will expand and look like raisins with legs.
What harm does tick bite do to human body?
The habit of ticks biting people is completely different from that of mosquitoes. Ticks suck blood with little stimulation, which is not easy for people to notice. Blood sucking needs to be attached to people or animals for a period of time, usually 3 to 4 days. Generally, it is adsorbed on the position of the body that is not easy to be found (popliteal fossa, navel, groin, etc.), and it is not easy to find.
The harm of ticks is mainly manifested in two aspects. On the one hand, it is a direct harm as a pathogen, resulting in skin damage and itching at the site bitten by ticks, and even serious allergic reactions; On the other hand, ticks are the vectors and storage hosts of zoonotic diseases. As biological vectors, ticks are known to spread 83 kinds of viruses, 15 kinds of bacteria, 17 kinds of spirochetes, 32 kinds of protozoa, chlamydia, mycoplasma and rickettsia. Tick bites are usually not too dangerous, but the diseases they spread are often more harmful and sometimes even fatal. Tick-borne diseases mainly include fever, thrombocytopenia syndrome, granulocytic anaplasmosis, forest encephalitis, Lyme fever, hemorrhagic fever, etc. These diseases can cause serious consequences if they are not diagnosed and treated in time.
How do ticks find their hosts?
Acari has a keen sense of smell, especially for animal sweat and exhaled carbon dioxide. The sensing distance can reach 15 m. Larvae, nymph and adult of ticks can suck blood, and when they are full of blood, they leave their hosts. Ticks suck a lot of blood, which can swell several times to dozens of times after being full of blood in each development period.
How to prevent being bitten by ticks?
We should try to avoid sitting and lying for a long time in the main habitats of ticks, such as grassland and Woods. If you need to enter such areas, you should pay attention to strengthening personal protection, wearing long-sleeved clothes and tightening your trouser legs and cuffs. Take a shower and change clothes when you come back, and check your body and clothes carefully to see if there are ticks biting or climbing. Remove them immediately after finding them. In addition, pesticides such as trichlorfon can be sprayed to eliminate ticks on the body surface of livestock and in barns.
What should I do if I am bitten by a tick?
In China, a large number of people are bitten by ticks every year. Is it better to pick ticks as soon as possible? The answer is yes, because if not removed, ticks will bite for a long time, suck more blood, and may release more toxins and pathogens. Therefore, it is necessary to remove the ticks on the body surface in time, but it should not be removed at will, because the ticks’ heads have inverted hooks, which leads to the tighter and tighter pulling, and it is easy to leave the ticks’ heads in the skin when they are pulled hard. Therefore, when conditions permit, it is best to seek the help of a doctor. Dermatologists usually take measures to seal the worm with paraffin oil first. After one hour, the tick basically loses its activity, and then use tweezers to pull the tick out of the skin.
If it is handled by itself, it is best to apply alcohol, oil of herb of Luofushan, kerosene, turpentine or dry tobacco oil on the head of ticks, or light mosquito-repellent incense beside it to "anesthetize" ticks and let them loose their mouths. You can also take it out vertically with pointed tweezers, and then use iodine or alcohol for local disinfection. However, whether the tick falls off by itself or is taken out manually, it is necessary to observe the physical condition at any time. When the body is unwell, such as fever or symptoms such as inflammation, ulceration and erythema at the bitten part, you should see a doctor in time. Be sure to tell the doctor about being bitten by ticks when you see a doctor, so as to help you check whether you have tick-borne diseases, so as to avoid missing the best treatment opportunity.
Early detection and treatment should be taken to deal with tick bites.
For local injuries, after removing ticks, topical anti-toxin ointment can be given to control local bacterial infection.
Experts remind that it is more important to be alert to tick-borne diseases and carry out targeted prevention and control. If Lyme disease is prevalent, systemic antibiotics should be given. It is necessary to carry out the necessary hematological and immunological examination, closely observe the symptoms of severe allergy and infection and poisoning, and rescue them if necessary.
interlinkage
How to prevent being bitten by ticks?
① Ticks generally live in wild Woods and grasslands, waiting for their hosts at the tips of grass and the tops of shrub branches and leaves. Therefore, when walking on the road, try to stay in the middle of the road and stay away from the weeds and shrubs on the roadside.
② Personal protection should be done well in outdoor activities, and professional protection should be "five tights", and cuffs, neckline and trouser legs should be tied tightly. Personal protection advocates wearing long-sleeved clothes; Don’t wear sandals, tie up your trouser legs or stuff them into socks or shoes. Wear a hat when walking in the forest to avoid ticks biting your head.
③ Check whether there are ticks on clothes after outdoor activities, and light clothes are beneficial to find ticks.
④ After outdoor activities, you should check whether there are ticks attached to your body. Tick bites generally do not spread diseases at the initial stage, which is beneficial to the prevention of tick-borne diseases. The key parts of the inspection are scalp, waist, armpit, groin and ankle.
What if I find ticks on my body?
You don’t need to be particularly alarmed after being bitten by ticks. You can handle it yourself. The sooner you handle it, the better. You don’t need to wait for medical treatment. Use pointed tweezers, with the tweezers pointed as close as possible to the skin, and then tightly clamp the tick’s head or the place close to the head, slowly exert force, and don’t twist or yank, otherwise the tick’s head will stay in the body.
Skin bitten by ticks can be washed with soap and warm water, and hands can be washed at the same time. If possible, the skin can be disinfected with alcohol or iodine.
Some methods introduced on the Internet are not recommended, such as using alcohol or other irritating drugs, and using lighted cigarettes or matches to slowly approach the tick to force it to leave. These methods are not desirable, which will make the tick secrete more saliva and increase the chance of infection. Of course, it is even more inappropriate to beat it to death by brute force.
Can you get sick after being bitten by ticks?
The probability of getting sick after being bitten by ticks is not high, especially in Beijing. At present, only ticks have been found to carry Lyme disease pathogens, and there may be anaplasma. The virus causing death cases in Henan and other places has not been found yet, but if the following symptoms appear within one month after being bitten by ticks (or after activities in hilly and mountainous areas with dense vegetation), you should see a doctor in time and inform the doctor of the activity history or biting history: fever, with the body temperature exceeding 38℃, especially high fever; Headache, fatigue, muscle aches, or joint pain; A rash, especially a gradually expanding circular rash, appears.