Tick-Borne Infections

Tick-borne infections

What it is?

Tick-borne infections include diseases that a person can catch after being bitten by ticks. Currently, medicine knows five such infections:

1. Tick-borne encephalitis (caused by tick-borne encephalitis virus)
2. Tick-borne borreliosis (Lyme disease) (caused by Borrelia spirochete)
3. Granulocytic ehrlichiosis (caused by Ehrlichia phagocytophila)
4. Monocytic ehrlichiosis (caused by Ehrlichia muris)
5. Monocytic ehrlichiosis (caused by Ehrlichia chaffeensis)

The most common are encephalitis and borreliosis.

Causes

The carriers of infections are ticks - small arthropod insects without wings and antennae. They attach themselves to human skin and drink blood, simultaneously transmitting infections. Ticks have preferred places to bite - the scalp, ears, joints of the arms and legs.

The longer a tick feeds on blood, the more it secretes saliva containing pathogens. The risk of infection in the first day is about 80%. Ticks themselves do not suffer from these infections, but they can be carriers of them throughout their lives.

How to recognize?

It is difficult to recognize tick-borne infections, since each has its own incubation period. For encephalitis it is about a month, for ehrlichiosis it is two weeks, for borreliosis it is from 2 to 30 days.

The only way out is to carefully monitor your health after a tick bite. Measure the temperature and examine the wound. If there is the slightest deviation, consult a doctor. It is better to visit an infectious disease specialist immediately after a bite along with the tick.

Diagnostics

If the patient comes within three days of the bite, the doctor examines the tick for infections. If there is no tick, a blood test is taken for antibodies and PCR.

Emergency help

Treatment begins immediately after the pathogen is identified. Antibiotics are prescribed for Borrelia and Ehrlichia. For encephalitis - immunoglobulin against the virus.