Ticks belong to Arachnids and are related to mites. They live in forests, in places where is a lot of thick undergrowth.
We can find them also in hedgerows and grass. They usually fall from trees and other plants when people walking by. They know the exact time because they can detect carbon dioxide in expired air. They are active from spring to autumn when the temperature is from 8o Celsius upwards. Blood is their only food and they transmit germs to people and therefore dangerous disaese. Most common is Lyme borreliosis ( migrant redness, erythema chronicum migrans ) and transmitted bacteria is called Borrelia burgdorferi. The predominant vector is Ixodes tick. The bite of tick is usually painless so most of people are unaware of it. Feeding lasts for about 96 hours.
During the first 24-48 hours B.burgdorferi is proliferating in tick’s gut During last 48 hours it actually inoculates the person bitten. So if the tick is removed during the first 24-48 hours after the bite we can avoid the infection.
The disease manifest itself on the skin, in the joints, heart and nervous system.
First a ring – like redness of the skin ( erythema migrans lesion ) occurs – usually together with flu – like symotoms. This lesion occurs with a rash spreading in a centrifugal way with an area of clearing in the centre.
Weeks and even months later neurological manifestation such as meningitis, cranial neuritis, radicular neuritis, paralysis may occur.
When left untreated this infection usually recede and the person may feel well but it is only the pariod of latency. It will reappear causing different complications like cardiomiopathy, acrodermatitis chronicum atrophicans, arthritis, chronic meningoencephalitis.
Not every bite transfers the cause. But an alarm sign for a boreliosis is a ringlike reddening at the site of the bite as well as flu like symptoms that is: fever, rheumatic pain and headache. You should consult your physician as quickly as possible. After the tick is removed the place of the bite should be observed for about six weeks.
To establish a proper diagnosis you have to do special blood tests detecting antibodies to borrelia in the serum or brain-bone marrow fluid.
The most effective method of removing a tick is to pull it out with tweezers, thick pincers. Make sure you do not squeeze it or break its head off. Another way is to wrap dental floss around it and then pull up.Pinch the tick gently and then drag. It is very important to remove its head completly; if it is not removed, infecion of bite location may occur. Covering the tick and surroundings with an oil causing the tick to suffocate, it can irritate it and cause it to go deeper or vomit, increasing the possibility of disease transmission.
Borreliosis is treated with antibiotics. The antibiotics of choice is in children amoxicillin, in adults doxycycline and ceftriaxone. In chronic Lyme disease especially effective are macrolide antibiotics like clarithromycin combined with hydroxychloroquine.